Tate & Lyle, the sugar refiner, said a strong performance in the Americas had resulted in profits for the four months ending January 31 exceeding expectations.

Tate, the company behind Splenda sweeteners, saw nearly £750 million wiped off its share price in one day, in September, when it issued its third profit warning in a year.

But in an interim management statement this morning the firm said that profit before tax was “marginally ahead of our expectations”.

Shares in Tate were up 9p to 517.5p on the news.

The firm said that its food and industrial ingredients arm had seen a performance in the Americas that was “somewhat ahead of our expectations”.

Sales of sucralose, the sweetener, grew, Tate said, but profits were lower because of higher patent defence and fixed costs at the firm’s Singapore plant.

The weakening dollar was likely to reduced profits by £14 million, the statement said, adding: “Taking into account the above exchange rate assumptions, this has reinforced the board's overall expectations as set out at the presentation of our interim results, that the expected outturn for our continuing operations in the second half of the year to 31 March, 2008, will be broadly similar to that of the first six months.”

Pre-tax profits for the first six months of the year ending March 31 were £117 million.

Early, larger rises in Tate's stock were tempered by an analyst's note from ABN Amro, downgrading the stock to "hold" from "buy, and upping its target for the shares to 510p from 490p.

Times Recommends

• Minister in talks with Saudis to protect creditors
• Premier Inn hits back in £29-a-room row
• Bankers hit back at 'populist' bonus supertax