Defence contractor Chemring posts first-half loss

June 23 (Reuters) - British defence contractor ChemringGroup Plc reported a first-half loss, hurt by delays inorders from the Middle East and budgetary cuts in its keymarkets.

The company reported a pretax underlying loss fromcontinuing operations of 1.3 million pounds ($2.05 million) forthe six months ended April 30. It had reported a profit of 13.4million pounds a year earlier.

"Prolonged negotiations and delays in the receipt ofsignificant Middle East orders mean that we expect a heavyweighting of this year's performance towards the second half,"Chief Executive Michael Flowers said in a statement.

($1 = 0.6337 pounds) (Reporting by Esha Vaish in Bengaluru; Editing by AnupamaDwivedi)

Chemring