The falls followed a 10 per cent underperformance by the sector since the beginning of the year as the market started to worry that the industry's recovery had ended.Wilson Bowden has a reputation for being unusually cautious on prospects. Its results suffered much less during the recession because it avoided the temptation to over-expand. But its comments yesterday were unambiguous.David Wilson, chairman and chief executive, said: "As noted by several commentators in the industry, conditions in the housing market turned down sharply in mid-June and this situation has continued."Investment Column, page 16. Last year, Wilson made pre-tax profits of pounds 37.1m after selling just over 2,000 houses.Other shares to fall yesterday included Wilson Connolly, down 6p to 161p, Persimmon, down 6p to 206p and Bryant, which closed 8p lower at 129p. Following the withdrawal of Tarmac from the market last week and rumours that Trafalgar House is looking to quit housebuilding, Wilson's statement appeared to mark the peak of the current housing cycle. The company's shares slumped 28p to 343p after it said it did not expect second-half profits to exceed those for the first half. Interim results would themselves be only marginally ahead of last year's. Shares tumbled across the building and construction sector yesterday after Wilson Bowden, widely regarded as one of the industry's best companies, warned on second-half profits, writes Tom Stevenson.

The company won new business in the first half of the year from Comet, Johnson & Johnson, American West, Pepperidge Farm, the Royal Mail, Jamont and Eurocard. Cordiant's operating groups have again been invited to bid on major accounts in the UK.US revenues remained flat, however, and Mr Scott conceded more work would have to be done to improve the performance of US operating units.He said the arrival earlier this year of a new chief executive, former US food executive Bob Seelert, was aimed in part at turning these operations around.Comment, page 15. Cordiant, the troubled advertising holding company formerly known as Saatchi & Saatchi, indicated yesterday that its problems would persist well into the second half of the year, as both profits and revenues continued to bear the mark of client departures and restructuring costs. Revenue in the first six months of 1995 was down marginally to pounds 374.7m from a year earlier, with profits down sharply to pounds 7.3m from pounds 21.7m, after a pounds 10.8m in exceptional restructuring costs, including severance packages paid to departing employees. A total of pounds 3.1m was paid to Maurice Saatchi and other departing executives of the group, as the result of a negotiated settlement reached earlier this year.Mr Saatchi's acrimonious departure late last year, following a boardroom battle over his pay, pushed the advertising company into near-crisis, resulting in the loss of key executives and major accounts, some of them to a new agency, now called M&C Saatchi, set up by the Saatchi brothers early this year.Cordiant chairman Charlie Scott said in his statement that the loss of two major accounts, - Mars and British Airways - would be a major contributor to the expected poor performance in the second half.In addition, the company is expected to continue to restructure operations in a strategy that has already seen the disposal of subsidiary Campbell Mithun Esty in the US and, as announced yesterday, the sale to a management group of Kobs & Draft Worldwide.The management group will pay pounds 8.6m in cash, pounds 5.9m in the form of a 10 percent subordinated loan note and pounds 2.5m in redeemable preferred stock in a new company formed to complete the purchase. Some analysts believe Sega may slash its prices to compete with Sony, although the company denies this.Nintendo has put off introduction of its 64-bit cartridge-based new console until 1996, partly due to the high value of the yen against the dollar.War of the consoles, page 16. Backed by a pounds 20m advertising campaign in the UK, the PlayStation marks Sony's entry into the computer game mass market, in direct competition with rivals Sega and Nintendo. Analysts say the company needs a hit; the strong yen, coupled with Sony's high manufacturing cost base in Japan, have combined to squeeze profits in 1994 and 1995.Already a runaway success in Japan, where a million units have been sold since introduction last December, the PlayStation was launched earlier this year in the all-important US market. Sega's Saturn, a CD-based system like the PlayStation, was launched in the UK last month, retailing for pounds 399.

UK director of computer entertainment equipment, Ray Maguire, said the company hopes to sell a million consoles in both the US and Europe by 1997.Analysts said the battle among the three Japanese manufacturers might lead to a price war, as each attempts to establish its format as a new industry standard. Last year, it made profits of pounds 7.6m on sales of pounds 25m.In April, Mr Lloyd was appointed captain of the British Davis Cup team.. The PlayStation, Sony's long-awaited "new generation" video game console which company insiders call the most important new product since the Walkman, will be launched in Europe at a retail price of pounds 299. He reached the mens' doubles semi-final at Wimbledon in 1973.The first David Lloyd club opened in 1980. A second was opened in Croydon in 1984 but the partnership did not work and Mr Lloyd pulled out.The company floated on the stock exchange in 1993 and has been growing rapidly ever since. I'm really looking forward to it."The prospect of a high-flying career inside a pounds 3bn corporation like Whitbread is a long way from the tennis courts where Mr Lloyd first made his mark.

This dwarfs even the pounds 13m of career winnings earned by Martina Navratilova, the most financially successful tennis player. Now 47, Mr Lloyd still possesses boyish looks and an Andre Agassi-style pigeon-toed walk. He is not a big spender and lives modestly, but does drive a Ferrari.Golf is his other passion and the Whitbread deal was hatched on a golf course during a round with Whitbread's leisure director, David Thomas, six months ago."He sounded me out over a game and asked me whether it was something I might consider. David Lloyd was a good tennis player, but he never landed a winning cheque like the one that looked to be heading his way yesterday. Assuming the deal with Whitbread goes through, Mr Lloyd will net pounds 21m from the sale of his shares and the cashing in of his options.