STOCK WATCH

Viglen Technology's

pre-tax profit for the second half of 1997 dropped by 54.8 per cent to #1.2 million, with sales dropping by 0.5 per cent to #47.2 million. Viglen stock peaked at 86p in October 1997, following the company's agreement to produce the Microsoft PC before dropping away to its present level of 34p.

Sugar steps in

Amstrad chief executive Alan Sugar has stepped in as executive chairman in an attempt to stabilise the company. Amstrad also posted disappointing results for the same period, with a loss of #879,000.

JBA Holdings

A plunge from 1257p to 632.5p in just thirty minutes for JBA Holdings, a business software and services supplier, sparked a domino effect in the IT sector of the stock exchange. The crash, which wiped #228 million from the company's market value, led to drops in many IT stocks.

3COM

3Com has been rocked by a court case claiming 10 of the company's senior staff were involved in insider dealing that netted the defendants $59.3 million. It was claimed the accused misled shareholders over the success of the company's fast Ethernet cards, hubs and switches, leading to shares climbing to $81 in December 1996 from $52 in September 1996.

Hitachi

Hitachi has warned that its profits will be reduced by 70 per cent due to the fall in semiconductor prices.

The company expects profits for the year ending March to be Y20 billion ($160 million) a drop of Y89 billion ($712 million) from its forecast. This comes on top of NEC predicting a 51 per cent drop in annual profits, Fujitsu an 80 per cent drop and Toshiba an 85 per cent drop.

Micro Focus

Micro Focus will split its shares in an attempt to make the company's stock more marketable. The shares will be exchanged on a 5:1 ratio, subject to a shareholders' meeting on 12 March.

3DLABS

3Dlabs reported a net income rise of 40.4 per cent for its fourth quarter ended 31 December 1997. The company posted an annual net income of $16.1 million, compared with $2.6 million in the same period in 1996.

Net earnings per share climbed to 26.6 per cent.

Maxtor

Hard disk drive manufacturer Maxtor has announced a net income of $23.1 million for the fourth quarter ended 28 December, compared with a loss of $63.7 million for the same quarter last year. Revenue reached $501.9 million, compared with $253 million last year.