Shares in the major UK DIY retailers suffered after Travis Perkins, owner of Wickes, reported a 10% drop in sales in September and early October.
The company's interim report showed growth of 3.1% for the first nine months of 2008, but the latest figures show a sharp fall in sales in more recent weeks.

The news saw more than a third of the group's value wiped off the stock exchange as its share price fell, resulting in share price falls form B&Q parent Kingfisher and Homebase owner Home Retail Group.

Travis Perkins will now embark on a cost cutting exercise, which includes halving its capital expenditure next year, and, as reported this morning in the national press, making redundancies.

News from the city earlier in the week saw Seymour Pierce downgrade its recommendation on Home Retail Group to 'Hold'. The broker sees Argos as coming under increasing competition form supermarket chains such as Tesco and Asda, who have launched similar catalogue-based models in recent months, and believes Homebase is structurally challenged and underperforming in the current DIY market.