Shares in Computacenter fell nearly 10 per cent on Friday after the IT services group warned that tough early-year trading in the UK and France would hold back first-half profits.

The fall came in spite of reassurances by Mike Norris, chief executive, that sales had improved in recent weeks and he was still expecting the company to meet estimates for the full year. Computacenter’s sales are heavily weighted towards the second half of the year, with about two-thirds of revenues coming in this period.