It’s not a pretty picture for Photo-Me as shares dive

A PROFIT warning wiped more than £151m off the value of Photo-Me.

The British firm, which operates photo kiosks and ID card booths, has been hit by flagging demand for its services in Japan.

There has been a boom in photo booths in Japan since its government rolled out an ID card scheme two years ago, which has put pressure on commissions.

But the scheme is not compulsory and has ‘ not gained the momentum photo booth operators initially anticipated’, the company said in an update.

As a result Photo-Me has been forced to restructure its Japanese business, which will hit profits. The firm says that it will make a pre-tax profit of around £44m in the year to April 30, below analysts’ expectations.

Shares nosedived 26.6pc, or 40.2p, to 111.2p.

The FTSE 100 rallied after Tuesday’s global sell- off, which was prompted by political turmoil in Italy and Spain. The blue- chip index rose 0.75pc, or 56.93 points, to 7689.57, while the FTSE 250 was up by 0.37pc,or 75.91 points, at 20,822.67p.

Bodycote raced to the top of the FTSE 250 after the heat treatment specialist revealed betterthanexpected revenue for the first four months of the year.

It reported sales of £243m in the four months to April 30, up 7pc on the year before. Shares motored 7pc, or 64.5p, higher to 989.5p.

JP Morgan downgraded Dunelm to neutral following the soft-furnishing retailer’s shock profit warning last week.

In a note to investors, JPM said: ‘We believe that the UK consumer environment is uncertain and that big ticket spending in particular remains weak.’ Dunelm shares edged 0.4pc, or 2p, lower to 543p.

Go-Ahead shares fell after analysts at Liberum downgraded the owner of Southeastern railway to hold. The broker said that disruption at its GTR rail franchise following recent timetable changes mean caution is warranted. Shares slid 5.3pc, or 98p, to 1741p.

Phoenix Group shares rose 1.5pc, or 11.5p, to 783.5p after it raised £950m from shareholders to pay for the insurance arm of Standard Life Aberdeen.

Shares in Pressure Technologies dived after the specialist engineering firm issued a profit warning.

It says full-year results are likely to fall ‘substantially’ below market expectations as it struggles to sign up new clients to its alternative energy division. Its shares plunged 22.6pc, or 42p, to 144p.

Clontarf Energy painted a bleak picture for small oil companies as it posted a £2.8m loss for 2017.

In a gloomy update, it said: ‘The shares of listed oil exploration companies are generally friendless. Their share prices have almost all fallen and remain in, many cases, more than 90pc below their peak. It is virtually impossible to raise serious money.’

However, it added that the rising price of oil means there are huge returns on offer to successful explorers. Shares plummeted 29.4pc, or 0.1p, to 0.24p.

The board of Fishing Republic insisted turnaround plans were under way as the fishing supplies firm swung to a £2.3m loss in 2017 from a £402,000 profit the year before. Shares dropped 16.7pc or 2.05p to 10.2p. Keywords Studios has bought the London-based creative games agency Fire Without Smoke in a deal worth up to £5.2m.

Fire Without Smoke makes video game trailers and marketing art for major publishers such as Sony, Riot Games, Sega, Capcom, and Ubisoft. Analysts at Peel Hunt raised Aim-listed Keywords’ target price by 50p to 1900p on the back of the announcement.

Keywords edged 1.1pc, or 18p, lower to 1700p.