Seven directors in Churchill China have taken advantage of a trading error that sent its stock down on Wednesday, all buying shares yesterday at 290p.

An investor in Churchill Mining sold stock at around 50p and someone put the trade through Churchill China’s ticker by mistake. China’s shares dived from 299p to 285p as a result and the directors decided to pile in. They bought a total of 35,000 shares, an investment of £101,500 and China’s shares picked up 7p to 294p. Churchill Mining was up ½p at 52½p.

Erinaceous fell 5¼p to a new low of 9p after the new managers of the property group, who have taken over following the departure of Neil Bellis, said the level of debt was unsustainable and a debt for equity swap might be needed, which would leave existing holdings significantly diluted. Another small cap disaster with new management, Photo-Me International, plunged 13¼p to 36¼p after it issued a profit warning over poor sales in its mini-lab and wholesale lab manufacturing businesses.

Davenham, the financier of small businesses, was down 1p at 258½p on fears that its predator, ACP Capital, unchanged at 72p, would not be able to raise funds for its takeover by today’s deadline. Assetco, a provider of support services to UK fire and rescue services, rose 11½p to 204p on the back of strong results.

Delcam, the computer-aided design group, lost 42½p to 250p after it said profits would be hit by the weak dollar and a slowdown in sales in Korea and Thailand. Wagon, the maker of car components, was up 4p at 28p after operating profit doubled. IQ Holdings, the business research group, was unchanged at 2½p on its debut on AIM.

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