Spectroscopic distances of 28 nearby star candidates

Aims. Twenty eight hitherto neglected candidates for the Catalogue of Nearby Stars (CNS) were investigated to verify their classification and to improve their distance estimates. All targets had at least a preliminary status of being nearby dwarf stars based on their large proper motions and relatively faint magnitudes. Better photometric and/or spectroscopic distances were required for selecting stars for further trigonometric parallax measurements. Methods. Low-resolution spectra were obtained with NASPEC at the Tautenburg 2 m telescope and with CAFOS at the Calar Alto 2.2 m telescope. The spectral types of M-type stars were determined by direct comparison of the target's spectra with those of comparison stars of known spectral types observed with the same instrument. The classification of earlier types was performed based on comparison with published spectral libraries. Results. For most of the target stars reliable spectral types could be determined and in combination with 2MASS photometry new improved distance estimates became available. The majority were classified as M dwarfs including 11 stars within 25 pc. The fainter component of LDS 1365, previously thought to form a nearby common proper motion pair, is according to our results an unrelated high-velocity background star. For several other nearby common proper motion pairs our distance estimates of the fainter components are in good agreement with Hipparcos distances of the brighter components. The three stars in our sample that were previously thought to be white dwarfs (GJ 2091, GJ 2094, GJ 2098) turned out to be more distant high-velocity F- to K-type ( sub) dwarfs. For the star with the largest tangential velocity (GJ 2091; upsilon(tan) > 500 km s(-1)) we have additional evidence for its probable Galactic halo membership from a measured large radial velocity of 266 +/- 25 km s(-1) and from its UBV photometry indicating a low metallicity.