Connaught's share slides continues

Shares in Connaught continued to slide on Tuesday, having fallen by a third on Friday and another third yesterday.The shares are currently down around 19% at 109.60p. Connaught's shares started their descent on Friday after the social housing firm lowered its estimates for this year and next year because of the emergency budget. The group said at the time that it has identified 31 contracts within its social housing division where a proportion of the value relating to capital expenditure has been deferred.Revenues for this year will be around £80m lower and underlying profit will be down £13m, it said. If the trend continues, the group expects revenues to reduce £120m for financial year 2011 and underlying profits down £16m.Connaught gave a conference call yesterday where they announced that first signs of the issues leading to Friday's profit warning were seen in April, Panmure Gordon said today.The broker maintained its negative stance, saying that there is still much uncertainty surrounding the stock. It reiterated its Sell recommendation and lowered its target price from 175p to 110p.Meanwhile, analysts at Oriel Securities cut their recommendation from Hold to Sell.Connaught's profit warning forced rival Mears to issue a statement saying that it is not experiencing any downward pressure on spend in its social housing business. Mears