The group which has considerable exposure to the US housing and construction markets saw its share price shoot up over 12 per cent on the announcement.

But more importantly it led some analysts to suggest that the gloomy downgrading of the company's prospects in the US might have been overdone.

The group which has net borrowings of over £2bn has reduced its headcount by over 6,000 people since 1 August 2007  and managed to cut its net debt by around 10 per cent.

However, in its last trading statement it said it expected the decline in the UK market to get worse before it got better.