Over the past month the techMARK 100 index has fallen to an all-time low of 715.54. Happily, some of London's technology lights have been shining brighter amid the general gloom and the widespread share price collapse has left many good companies, with strong cashflows, trading on single-figure price/earnings ratios.

Market beaters

One such firm is electronic data-capture specialist Dicom, which recently said it had witnessed 'the most challenging trading conditions in the global IT industry for a long time'. But it still made record pre-tax profits of £10.8 million during the same 12-month period. For good measure the firm, which rose 10p to 420p, added: 'Current trading conditions remain strong.'

IT solutions group Compel seems to be recovering, having reported trading profits up from £100,000 to £1.5 million for the year to June. This was despite what it describes as 'the most difficult market conditions the IT market has ever experienced'. Down 11p at 40p, Compel nevertheless warned that it would be 'foolhardy to place any reliance upon any upturn at this time'.

Irish IT solutions firm Horizon Technology has been the star performer of the reporting period, beating market expectations with interim results showing C700,000 pre-tax profits, before significant book losses on the disposal of subsidiaries. The latter did not stop its shares from doubling to 28.5p.

Network access and switching technology group Telspec was another to move into the black in the first half. It posted a £573,000 pre-tax profit, compared with a loss of £1.2 million last year, although its shares fell 6.5p to 41.5p in response.

Insurance industry software and services supplier Sirius Financial Solutions says it had 'an outstanding half year'. The company edged up 7.5p to 135p after announcing pre-tax profits lifted to £1.8 million, with gearing eliminated.

Meanwhile lauded-the derided e-tailer lastminute.com confirmed it expects to deliver its first profit, before tax, goodwill and exceptional costs, in the fourth quarter of its year. The shares moved forward 2p to 93p.

Damage zone

Not all services firms performed so well. Xansa, which was previously widely favoured by analysts, crashed 59.5p to 38p when it released a worrying statement saying first-half figures were unlikely to meet expectations. Depressingly it added that the second half will be much worse.

Fellow services company DCS was one of a litany of companies to report substantial, and larger, exceptional costs (£5.4 million). But it managed to trim first-half operating losses to £600,000 on much-reduced turnover. The shares fell 5.5p to 13p.

Warning still

Profit warnings continue to flow from the IT and electronics sectors. X-ray instrumentation specialist Bede said its upcoming results will be behind forecasts. It fell 42.5p to 61p as a result.

Telecoms industry supplier Advanced Power Components slumped 9.5p to 27p after warning that a big decrease in revenues in early summer means full-year results for 2002 will be 'well below expectations'.

Meanwhile former boom-time favourite Baltimore Technologies announced interim results showing £23 million of cash left at the end of June, following cuts in both revenues and losses, the latter hitting £9.8 million. The firm reported that it is near to completing a restructuring. The shares currently trade at 5.75p

Redbus Interhouse has followed a similar route, having seen losses balloon from £2.4 million to £13.1 million in the six months to June. The firm lost another 1.75p and slumped to 4p.

TTP to communicate

TTP Communications, which licences out technology for use in digital wireless communications, will be reporting its interim results for the six months to September on 16 October. Recently trading at 37.5p, against a year-high of 166.5p and a low of 27.5p, the shares are on a prospective p/e of 12.9. This is based on independent broker TD Waterhouse's forecast for £9 million pre-tax profits this year, and 2.9p of earnings per share. Director Gerald Avison recently bought 30,000 shares at 30p