Ideal Hardware has rejected suggestions that UK PC distributors are all affected by a sales malaise. Yesterday, competitor Datrontech, issued a profits warning which caused its shares to slide on the UK stock markets. Other IT companies, including Ideal, also showed drops in their share price. But Ideal Hardware, in a statement from its board of directors, said that Datrontech's observations that it, as well as a number of other PC distributors had experienced a sharp decline in business compared to the first four months of 1998, did not apply to it. "In line with its trading update on 11 June 1998, Ideal has continued to trade strongly throughout the final quarter at margins within the company's target band," the statement said.