Shares in Wolfson Microelectronics, the Scottish maker of chips for the world's must-have electronic consumer gadgets, yesterday plunged almost 4% as it emerged that the company's chairman had dumped £77,000 worth of shares.

Shares in Wolfson Microelectronics, the Scottish maker of chips for the world's must-have electronic consumer gadgets, yesterday plunged almost 4% as it emerged that the company's chairman had dumped £77,000 worth of shares.

In a regulatory announcement to the London Stock Exchange, Edinburgh-based Wolfson revealed that Michael Ruettgers had on Wednesday sold 100,000 shares at 77p per share. Boardroom sell-offs can often adverseley affect a company's share price.

Shares in Wolfson, which have underperformed the FTSE All Share technology, hardware and equipment index by around 20% over the past three months, yesterday fell a further 2.75p to 73.25p - a far cry from the 469p it hit in September 2006.

Wolfson shares have lately also suffered from increasingly weak global consumer demand.

Last month, the maker of microchips for mobile phones, MP3 players, Playstations and satnav systems issued this year's second profits warning The grim forecasts at Wolfson, which also makes chips for the Apple iPhone, have been set against an economic climate that has sliced deeply into profitability across the consumer electronics sector.

Wolfson's chips are best known for tasks such as converting digital data into analogue signals for speakers and they are key components of the fast-growing number of portable listening and communications devices.

The company also provides the chips for DVD players, flatscreen televisions, digital radios, digital set-top boxes and cameras - sales of which have been hit by the global economic slowdown.

In the regulatory statement, Wolfson also noted that after the sale Ruettgers' holding was slimmed down to 600,000 ordinary shares, representing 0.52% of the company's issued share capital.