Beyond the Footsie: Thursday close

SMALLER company shares ended lower but outperformed the wider market, supported by well-received earnings. The FTSE SmallCap index fell 9 points to 1963.9.

Investors bought into Whittard Of Chelsea, up 16 1/2p to 75p, after the tea and coffee retailer revealed a return to profits following two years of losses and was upbeat on current trading. Like-for-like sales are ahead 9% for the 15 weeks to 8 September and margins have widened.

Broadband systems designer BATM Advanced Communications rose 1 1/4p to 13 1/4p, also on upbeat trading comments and news of its strong cash position. Corporate Services, the recruitment agency, climbed 1 1/4p to 7p on interims. A sharp hike in first-half sales drew buyers to a Music Choice Europe, a provider of music through digital TV and the internet, which rose 1/4p to 6 1/2p.

Smart card firm ID Data soared 1 1/2p to 5 1/4p after confirming it has won the contract for the loyalty scheme to be used by BP, Sainsbury's, Barclaycard and Debenhams. The deal is expected to generate sales of £8m over its first two years.

Tribal Group put on 25p to 305p. The public sector services firm said trading for the first five months of the year was 'significantly ahead' of the year-earlier period.

Griffin Mining added 1/2p to 4 1/4 on talk that its zinc reserves in China are bigger than previously thought.

Casualties included Alkane Energy, down 19p to 23 1/2p after it said it was slowing its development programme and focusing on fewer sites due to low electricity prices. Mark Redway, analyst at Canaccord, said the move showed Alkana would not achieve the plans it set out with its float less than two years ago. 'The company is assigning a large proportion of blame to weak electricity prices but there seem to be more fundamental issues that question Alkane's overall business plan,' he said.

Medical Solutions lost 4p to 21 1/4p after the group said it was in talks to sell its pharmaceuticals division. A profits warning sliced 167 1/2p off shares in Leopold Joseph, the independent private bank, to leave them at 602 1/2p.

KBC Advanced Technology shed 11 1/2p to 36p. It has started legal action against US group Aspen Technology over their software joint venture.