Finance and accountancy recruiter Michael Page reported a record pre-tax profit of £45.2m for the six months to June, up from £30.5m a year earlier.

The City had been expecting stronger results and shares fell nearly 5% on the day of the announcement. The firm admitted to a disappointing performance in Australia, its main market in the Asia-Pacific region.

Gross profit in Australia was flat at £12.87m. Chairman Adrian Montague said Page had made a "number of management and operational changes" in Australia, but added that these would not have an impact until 2007.

Ian Jermin, analyst at Bridgewell, said: "It's a company-specific issue, rather than a problem with the Australian market as a whole, and you can't fault the rest of the results. The share price fall was overdone."

Total turnover rose 24.6% to £312m. Gross profit in the UK rose 20.8% to £76m. The firm's UK headcount rose 70 to 1,370.

The cash-rich company spent £39.7m buying back shares during the period, and took advantage of the weakness following the results to buy more. It also raised the interim dividend 20% to 1.8p a share.

Chief executive Steve Ingham said: "We experienced excellent growth in most geographies."