Shares in Morgan Crucible bucked their downward trend, rising 16 per cent at one stage, after the British engineer said full-year revenue growth was expected to be more than 15 per cent, helped by the strengthening dollar.

The company, whose shares fell 14 per cent on Monday after rival Cookson warned it would miss its profit targets, said its order book at the end of October remained healthy – at levels above the same period last year and with close to four months’ visibility. At constant currency levels, it expected organic growth to be about 5 per cent.