It's been another upbeat fortnight for shares in recruitment firms with several reaching new highs, including Healthcare Locums, Lorien, Matchtech and Staffline.

But there are exceptions, such as Multi Group, which has resumed trading on the Alternative Investment Market after being suspended for six months. Multi has announced the acquisition of Dream Group, which specialises in providing outsourced solutions to the policing sector, and is also in education and health. Multi plans to change its name to Servoca plc.

Dream chief executive Darren Browne will be chief executive of the new enlarged company. Bob Morton will be non-executive chairman, replacing executive chairman Oliver Cooke. But Multi has raised £4m to help finance the deal, and Morton's stake, held through Guernsey-based Southwind, has plunged from more than 50% to 10.4%.

Meantime, the weakness of financial recruiter Imprint is attracting analysts' attention. The shares have lost 25% in the last few weeks. The firm, which owns Morgan McKinley and ECHM, has not issued any news that would justify such a fall. It will issue a trading update in July. Rumours suggest a major investor is aggressively selling shares.