Yesterday, Amstrad poured cold water on such talk.UCM fell 1p to 72.5p despite posting an impressive jump – to £1.3m from £800,000 – in first-half profits. Brokers believe its recent restructuring leaves the company will placed for further profit growth. The group is now bigger than Pace, its nearest UK listed rival. Both specialise in the manufacture of set-top boxes and it has in the past been rumoured that Amstrad might be interested in merging with its rival. Evolution Securities expects profits at Amstrad to rise to £18.8m by the end of the current year. According to the latest reincarnation, Siemens, the German industrial giant, is poised to move on Invensys, up 0.5p to 13.75p on volume of 176 million.The US fund management giant Brandes would certainly be happy to see someone buy the group.

It has steadily added to its holding in recent months, which now stands at a whopping 18 per cent, at prices way above yesterday’s close and is believed to be sitting on a sizeable paper loss at present.Lower down the pecking order, Amstrad jumped 7p to 210p after the electronics group unveiled forecast-busting full-year figures Pre-tax profit soared to £15.6m from £3.7m. But Rod Eddington, BA’s chief executive, conceded that this had resulted in staff shortages in some areas of the business. Referring to the reasons for the disruption in August, when BA was forced to cancel scores of flights, he said: “There were operational and technical difficulties that day involving runway closures and a lack of stand-by aircraft, but a shortage of staff to help our customers was a significant one and we have addressed that as an absolute priority.”Despite the chaos on the day, Mr Eddington has decided that no heads need to roll among management. “Rod took the view that no one person or part of the business was to blame so it would be unfair to single people out.”When BA announced its first-quarter results at the beginning of August, it warned that the £300m cost saving target “remains a challenge in light of the industrial relations environment” At the time, BA was facing a strike threat by ground staff. This was resolved with the signing of a new three-year pay deal, part of which involves a move to tackle BA’s high levels of absenteeism. The airline is seeking, over the next 12 months, to cut the number of days its employees take off from an average of 17 to 10.The airline believes that “sickies” are responsible for a significant proportion of missed days and remains concerned about certain working practices such as staff clocking off early in areas of the airport.. Laura Ashley admitted yesterday that its attempt to overhaul its “frumpy frocks” image had scared away some of its older customers as it unveiled a sharp drop in clothing sales.

But so far the strategy has backfired, with underlying clothing sales plunging 36 per cent in the six months to the end of July.Shares in the group, which is controlled by the Malaysian conglomerate MUI, dropped 16 per cent to 14.75p. They have never recovered from the company’s ill-fated attempt to build up a global empire in the wake of its founder’s death in the mid-Eighties.Mike Kingsbury, the chief operating officer, said that the group would “condense” its fashion business, which contributes around one-fifth of its UK retail sales, by opening more stand-alone home furnishings stores. The company has long been talked of as a target for the likes of Siemens, Honeywell or General Electric and given that its share price stands within a whisker of its all time low few were surprised that the rumour had returned. Persimmon dropped 41p to 643p, George Wimpey fell 24.75p to 398.5p, Westbury retreated 21.25p to 413p and Bovis Homes lost 25p to 555p.There was another day of heavy trading in Invensys, sparking rumours of a bid for the engineering conglomerate. Analysts, however, argued that the Spanish group is more likely to use the cash to buy out minority shareholders of Telefonica Moviles, its mobile phone arm.A profits warning from Countrywide, down 37p to 285p, spooked the house building sector as the estate agency group complained for the second time in six weeks about a slowing housing market. News of the deal immediately sparked speculation that Telefonica may use the proceeds from the sale to fund a bid for mmO2, up 1.25p to 95p.