TUESDAY MARKET CLOSE: IndigoVision slumps on profit alert

Video security outfit IndigoVision watched its shares fall heavily after warning that its annual results would fall short of City hopes amid a sales slowdown.

The London Stock Exchange building. Picture: Getty

The Edinburgh-based firm said revenues were “lumpy” in nature and it has been unable to replicate a large number of contract wins it enjoyed a year ago.

Shares tumbled 75p or 22.2 per cent to finish the session at a three-year low of 263.5p.

The wider market was also in a gloomy mood as official figures showed the UK’s economic growth slowed more than expected to 0.3 per cent in the first three months of the year, half the rate of 0.6 per cent seen in the fourth quarter of 2014, and the FTSE 100 closed down 73.45 points at 7,030.53.

Oil major BP dipped 0.8p to 476.1p after unveiling a 20 per cent fall in first-quarter profits due to lower Brent crude prices, which have halved since last summer, but Scottish Gas owner Centrica was among the biggest blue-chip risers with a gain of 6.2p, or 2.3 per cent, to 275.3p.

Whitbread posted an 18 per cent rise in annual underlying profits, helped by growth at its Premier Inn hotels division and Costa coffee chain. But shares dropped 140p or 2.6 per cent or 5,300p after the group said chief executive Andy Harrison would retire by February next year.

Outside the top flight, shares in Alliance Trust edged up 1p to 520p after the Dundee firm reached an 11th-hour compromise with hedge fund Elliott Advisors ahead of tomorrow’s annual meeting. The US activist investor had wanted to have three directors voted onto the board of the FTSE 250 trust, which has now accepted two of the nominees.

Fellow wealth manager St James’s Place was the biggest faller on the FTSE 100, down 31p or 3.4 per cent at 875.5p, as it flagged well-heeled savers’ concerns over the outcome of next week’s general election.