Argos owner Home Retail slumps after profits fall 60% and dividend is scrapped.

(From Guardian Unlimited)

Home Retail, the owner of Argos and Homebase, has been under pressure on fear of bad figures, and they have proved just as poor as expected, with analysts saying it could need a rights issue to finance its strategy.

The company's shares have slumped 5.7p to 95.3p - a near 6% decline - as it axed its final dividend and revealed full year profits had dropped by 60% to GBP102m. It added that future dividends would be set at a sustainable level which reflected its trading prospects and the group's financial position, which has done little to hearten investors.

Argos profits more than halved form GBP219m to GBP106.9m, even with the …