Reuters passes the screen test

FOR the first quarter since the dotcom boom, Reuters has installed more terminals than customers asked it to remove.

But sales still fell in the third quarter, although underlying recurring revenue - down 4.4% - beat analysts' forecasts of 5%.

However, chief executive Tom Glocer was not as bullish as his recently leaked internal memo to staff suggested and refused to comment on the prospects for next year: 'We have not and won't be today giving guidance for 2005.'

The international news agency and markets information provider expects revenue to fall 3% in the final quarter, taking the decline for the whole year to 5.5%.

Glocer said the uncertainty in US financial markets ahead of the elections and 'some signs of lay-off plans across Europe' meant any improvement was more to do with Reuters getting things right than any real help from its markets.

Actual sales in the third quarter to the end of September dropped 13% to £570m, which the group said signalled an underlying fall of 5%.

Sales of the new range of products, including Reuters Trader and Xtra, outstripped the removal of old-legacy products such as Reuters 2000 and Reuters 3000 for the first time.

Analysts said that, despite Glocer's deadpan attitude, things looked better than most of them had expected and the shares powered to the top of the FTSE 100 leaderboard with a surge of 27p to 350p.