STOCK WATCH

SPRUE Aegis supplies home safety products such as smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors across Europe.

In a trading update yesterday its aid sales in the first half of the year had more than halved to £25.9m from £56.5m from the same period in 2015. Sprue reported a loss of £0.9m, compared to £9m of operating profit a year ago. The firm had been hit with problems with its smoke detector batteries this year.

But it remained debt free and intends to declare an interim dividend of 2.5p a share. Shares slipped 5pc, or 9p to 170p.