Shares in Domino Printing Sciences hit a five-year low yesterday as the Cambridge-based ink jet printer maker reported lower profits and warned of continuing trading problems in the US. The 30p drop in its share price to 360p completed a miserable year for Domino, which is best known for making machines that squirt sell-by dates on food products.
The company has been plagued by a series of profit warnings and downgrades after it emerged last year that dud ink was congealing in its printers and clogging the jets.Domino yesterday highlighted the continued weakness of capital equipment spending in the US, especially in sales of high-value printers into the commercial printing market.It also reported a drop in pre-tax profits for the six months to April to pounds 4m from pounds 4.7m on sales 3 cent higher at pounds 51.6m. A spokesman for Shell said many of the factories were joint operations which could not be separated. It is due to start operating next year, assuming it receives regulatory clearance.The Exxon business employs 1,600 people in 13 countries, ranging from the Americas and continental Europe to the Middle and Far East, while Shell has 400, although that excludes workers at manufacturing sites in the UK, France, Belgium and the US. Exxon Chemicals will contribute its Paramins division to the operation, while Shell International Chemicals will add its world-wide petroleum additives business.

The move was prompted in part by sluggish demand for lubricants and fuels, which is falling below economic growth rates, the oil group said.It has signed a non-binding letter of intent with Exxon to form the joint venture, which will be controlled on a 50:50 basis by the two companies. It represents around 5 per cent of turnover, but it is not going to be earth shattering as far as Shell is concerned.”
Additives are used in petrol and lubricants to make engines run more smoothly and more cleanly. Shell said the joint venture would combine the capabilities of each partner and provide “significant” enhancements in efficiencies in research and development, technical services, marketing and distribution. Hopes that the announcement heralded a move to unlock shareholder value by demerging the chemicals division sent Shell’s shares up 18.5p at one stage in morning trading.

However, the shares ended just 5.5p up at 943p as disenchantment set in once analysts scrutinised the deal. John Toalster of brokers Societe Generale Strauss Turnbull said: “It’s a bit of a storm in a tea cup…. The two giant oil groups will command nearly a quarter of the market for additives, put at over $6bn in 1995. Shell yesterday announced a link-up with Exxon to create one of the world’s largest oil additives businesses with revenues of around $1.5bn (pounds 970m). Already prospective brokers sitting the tests are being asked to give their fingerprints and from September, all exam sessions will be recorded on videotape..

The National Association of Securities Dealers says that some brokers pay as much as $2,500 to others to sit the exam on their behalf.”We’re on to a startling number of people,” Martin Kuperberg, the New York district director of the NASD, concedes. Shares in electrical retailer Dixons have been stellar performers since the start of 1995, beating a strong stock market by 127 per cent. They put on another 14.5p to leave them at 530p yesterday after the Currys- to-PC World retail group unveiled another set of sparkling results and said underlying retail sales were 12 per cent ahead in the first ten weeks. It now has more than 1.6bn shares in issue.Reflec, a reflective inks supplier, jumped 37p to 135p following a five-year marketing deal with BASF, the German group.. Dana, the oil group with interests in Russia, gained 1p to 13.5p, almost double the March price.Bula Resources, held at 2.75p after placing 148m shares at 2.75p to provide cash for its Salymskoye oil field in Siberia. Most investors seemed content to sit on the sidelights.BSkyB ended 5p higher at 473p after hitting 482p.