Imagination Technologies shares drop sharply on profit warning

Market Report

(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The festive cheer that finally lifted investors’ spirits failed to spread to the chip makers which yesterday warned of doom and gloom in the smartphone market.

Imagination Technologies, which designs the graphics cards in Apple’s iPhones, plunged 17.5p to 146p as it warned that annual profits would be lower than expected.

The firm painted a bleak picture of the outlook, revealing that royalties had been hit by slowing smartphone sales. Adjusted operating losses came in at £7.3m, against a £5m profit the year before, while revenues plunged 13.5 per cent to £71.1m.

It echoed comments made by UK-based, Frankfurt-listed Dialog Semiconductor, which slashed revenue guidance for similar reasons.

Imagination’s loss was JPMorgan Asset Management’s gain given the hedge fund has a 1.6 per cent short position in the firm – a confident bet that the shares will fall. The sell-off of Imagination began on 27 November, since when it has lost a third of its value.

Arm, whose semiconductors power iPhones, shrugged off the malaise to join the rally, 11p higher at 1,052p.

The FTSE 100 soared 143.73 points or 2.45 per cent to 6,017.79, ending an eight-day losing streak for the blue-chip index that had dragged it down to a three-year low. A rally for Brent crude, 64 cents up at $38.56 a barrel, relieved some of the pressure on Shell, 45.5p better off at 1,473.5p, and BG Group, 36.5p richer at 956p, whose tie-up has come under intense scrutiny in the wake of tumbling oil prices.

Embattled Anglo American missed out on the mining recovery, falling 9.7p to 271.1p as JPMorgan cut its target price to 265p, even as it upgraded Glencore to overweight, boosting its shares 2.37p to 82.37p.

SuperGroup, 103p cheaper at 1,516p, went out of fashion after Liberum removed its buy tag, urging clients to cash in their profits before Christmas after an 82 per cent surge this year. At the other end of the mid-cap index, specialist pharma firm BTG put on 43.5p to 667p after a triple dose of good news when US regulators gave two new treatments the green light and good results from a clinical trial of its lung device.