Safestyle shares tumble as double glazing market loses its lustre

SHARES in Safestyle plunged to a two-and-a-half year low yesterday after the window maker warned that Britons had gone off double glazing.

The company said that its order intake had “declined beyond the board’s expectations” since it last warned on profits in July, blaming “an accelerating weakness in the market”.

The latest figures from double glazing regulator FENSA showed that installations were down by 18pc in June and July compared to 2016, Safestyle added. As a result, revenues for the Aim-listed firm are expected to be flat this year.

Its shares slid as low as 145.25p yesterday, a price not seen since March 2015, having closed on Thursday at 235.5p. The price recovered slightly during the day’s trading to close at 166.5p, 69p down.

The news caused analysts to cast gloom on the UK economy as a whole; less spending on home improvements could signal a wider dip in consumer confidence, they reasoned.

B&Q owner Kingfisher also appeared to be hit by a read-across from Safestyle, down 10.2p to 288.6p.

At the other end of the scale, shares in Uae-based hospitals group NMC

Health jumped to record highs of £28.36, 97p up, as the firm continued to cash in on its newly promoted position in the FTSE 100.

Last week The Sunday Telegraph revealed it was eyeing the UK as part of a wider global expansion.

Banking stocks also gained yesterday, tracking their European peers after policymakers from the European Central Bank agreed that the next step should be a reduction in quantitative easing. HSBC

was up 3.8p to 728.7p, while

Barclays and Lloyds rose 2.5p to 187.8p and 1.96p to 63.79p respectively.

Elsewhere, Astrazeneca continued its recent run of gains, finishing up 0.49p at £47.84. The firm announced on Thursday that it had made progress on a new injectable treatment for severe asthma, but more likely the gain was a result of the continued rumours that it is about to embark on a takeover of Acadia Pharmaceuticals, a US rival.

Glaxosmithkline was dented by a downgrade from Morgan Stanley, which cut its rating for the firm to “underweight”. Shares in GSK dropped 16.5p to £14.94 at the end of the day. Berkeley Homes

dropped away from its record share price hit earlier in the week to finish 127p down at £35.73, making it one of the FTSE 250’s biggest laggers on the day. Shares in the housebuilder had been as high as £37.52 last week, prompting top executives to cash in £40m worth of shares. The firm is set to rejoin the FTSE 100 in the coming weeks.

United Utilities slid as much as 13.5p to 904.5p after it was ordered to pay a fine of £666,000, having pleaded guilty to polluting a river with untreated sewage in Greater Manchester.

The Environment Agency brought a case against the water company after sewage polluted the River Medlock, impacting the fish population and water quality over a 4km stretch.

However, by the end of the day it had recovered slightly to close 0.5p down at 917.5p.

Stocks were subdued across Europe as markets braced themselves for the impact of Hurricane Irma, which is continuing to wreak havoc across the Caribbean and the south east of the United States.

The FTSE 100 finished the day down 19.38 points at 7,377.6, while the FTSE 250 slid 86.28 points to 19,610.4.