Hays had £140m knocked off its stock market valuation yesterday after it reported a 70% fall in underlying half-year profits to £30.4m.

Yesterday the company’s share price plummeted from 113p to close the day at 104p after it warned that many of its markets remained fragile.

Kean Marden, head of support services equity research, RBS Global Banking & Markets, told Recruiter: “The market was flagging up that UK trading momentum remained tough, although Asia Pacific has driven profitability more than expected.

“With EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) coming in at £35.1m against analysts’ forecasts of £35m-£37m, results were at the bottom end of the market’s expectations.”

Marden explained that with the share prices of staffing business generally poised for an upgrade, a modest downgrade in analysts’ expectations for Hays’ future financial results had led to this large reaction.

As Recruiter went to press, Hays’ share price stood at 103.6p.