Shares in Findel, the British shopping catalogue and educational supplier, have fallen by more than a third after the company issued a profit warning this morning.
Findel, whose products range from cutlery to greetings cards and football kits to children's nightwear, said 2007/08 pretax profit would be lower than its previous expectations and that bad debt provision is £5m more than previously thought.
"This has resulted in a profit warning just weeks after its year-end trading statement, which does not bode well," said KBC Peel Hunt analyst Robert Brent.
Its shares were down 157p, or 35%, by mid-morning at 288p.
Shares in rival N Brown Group have also been knocked. It is down 18p, or 7%, at 233.25p.
In the blue-chip share index, Thomson Reuters, the news and financial data giant, has debuted in the London market.
Shares in the company, formed by Thomson Corp's $16bn-plus takeover of Reuters last year, failed to excite a jittery market. It was down 137p, or 8%, at £16.88p by mid-morning.
The company, which sells electronic news and data to City traders and professionals including lawyers and accountants, competes for customers with Bloomberg and Dow Jones, which is now part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
Thomson, a Canadian media company, is stronger in the US, while Reuters is bigger in Europe.
