On Wednesday, Halfords (LON:HFD) warned that its full-year underlying profit would be at the lower end of its forecasts since the economic slowdown and elevated inflation hit sales at its cycling business.

Halfords shares plunged 12 per cent at the opening but recovered slightly to be down only 8.5 per cent by 03:30 ET (08:30 GMT). Shares of the UK’s biggest chain of cycling and motoring gear lost over two-thirds of their value but have recovered about one-third of those losses since the start of October.

Since September, the company reported that trading has been robust in its needs-based areas. However, the more discretionary areas have softened. Reportedly, revenue at its signature cycling shops dropped 7.1 per cent on the year in the six months.

The UK-based company said revenue in the six months was up 10.2 per cent from a year ago, although like-for-like sales were down 1.5 per cent against a tough comparison base. Pretax profit tumbled by half from a year ago to £29 million, with gross margins at Autocentres and retail coming under rising pressure from elevated inflation.