At its AGM last month, Morrisons said that its accounts department was too stretched trying to integrate Safeway to be able to provide any guidance for future profits or earnings.

Having brought in help from accountants, KPMG, that guidance was given last week and fell well short of analysts' current expectations. They had been expecting profit of between £250m and £300m.

The company's guidance suggested it will instead be in the £50m - £150m range, a substantial discount to last year's figure of £380m. The news sent the shares down to a nine-month low.

Morrisons has blamed the double costs involved in running both the old Safeway

system in addition to their

own one.

However, there is also some speculation that shoppers in the South have been shopping elsewhere because they are not happy about the proliferation of low-cost offers. Although they want to buy cheap - just ask Sainsbury's which has had to cut prices in order to boost sales - they are too supercilious to be seen so obviously doing so. Morrisons expects to update the market further on both earnings expectations and sales, in July.

Mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley has indicated that it will not see a noticeable change to pre-tax profit under the new International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

The new rules, which came into force in January of this year and will affect all companies' accounts for 2005, have had a large impact on some companies as the way they treat certain aspects of their accounts has changed. The aim of the new rules is to provide a uniform format that will allow better comparison of accounts in countries across Europe.

Cattles, the lender to low income families, gave a positive outlook at its AGM with chairman, Barrie Cottingham, stating that demand remained strong, whilst arrears and bad debt levels were stable.

The figures met the company's own expectations and led analysts at Merrill Lynch to upgrade their recommendation from a "sell" to "neutral". They remain cautious due to questions that are still hanging over both Cattles and Provident Financial because of a competition commission review into their lending businesses. The review will assess whether or not the companies provide enough information to clients about the interest rates they charge and the switching options available.

Jarvis Porter Group's full--year results reported a loss of £1.2m against a pre-tax profit of £1.2m last year. The downturn has been blamed on a cooling housing market and slowing consumer spending, both of which have hit the core Darby Group business, which processes glass for the construction and home improvement markets. The chairman, Christopher Mills, remained cautious stating that he expects "no growth in Darby Group's current core markets".