Annual results for the Northern Irish engineering company, Powerscreen, which has indicated that a pre-tax loss of £65 million will be announced, will be published in six to eight weeks, a company representative said yesterday. Mr Andrew Harris, the company secretary, said that the energies of its auditors, KPMG, had been diverted because of "the Matbro debacle" and results to March 1998 were now expected to be announced "towards the end of July". "Because of what happened and the need to avoid further embarrassment, we are all interested in seeing the most diligent audit possible carried out.

He said that he was hopeful that the recent share price fluctuation, which has seen a more than doubling in value, after earlier sharp falls, signified investor confidence in the group's core activities. Yesterday's share price at the close of the London Stock Exchange session was 99.5p sterling, down 22p on the day, but still 52p higher than last Thursday's opening 47.5p

"Hopefully institutional investors recognise that there actually is a sustainable core business which has got a future," he said. Sales and profit margins in the core screening and crushing businesses had always been buoyant and "demand for the product has always been strong".

"We are on target for the first two months that we know of this financial year," he said. He added that he was "confident" that there had been no leakage of information ahead of the issuing of last Friday's report from KPMG, after the British Observer newspaper reported that possible insider dealing was being investigated by the London Stock Exchange.

The newspaper quoted a source saying that "mainly small traders in Ireland" had been involved in the transaction of 3.1 million shares.

Mr Harris said that the company had received no communication on the matter from the Exchange, and normal market forces had led to the 23p increase on the share price last Thursday. One Dublin analyst said that as far as he knew there had been no official investigation launched, although when a share price moved "untowardly", an informal inquiry was usual. He said there had been no announcement. "As far as I am aware there is nothing out there so far," he said.