Johnson Matthey, down 2.2%, in its trading update for the third quarter ended 31 December 2016, announced that trading during the period was in line with its expectations and anticipates the full year performance to be slightly ahead of last year. Revenues for the period climbed to £3.1b from £2.5b reported in the same period a year ago, while the sales jumped 19% to £876m. Sales in Emission Control Technologies rose by 20% to £549m, backed by strong growth in Europe and Asia. As a result of a healthy order book, sales in Process Technologies rose 24% to £147m, while that of the Precious Metal Products soared to £102m with better demand and favourable precious metal prices. However, sales in Fine Chemicals was impacted by weaker demand in North America, particularly of active pharmaceutical ingredients for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder products, leading to a 9% contraction in sales on a constant currency basis. The New Businesses sales also declined by 10% to £48m, somewhat due to phasing of orders for battery systems for e-bikes. Barclays decreased its target price to 770p from 910p and maintained its “Overweight” rating on Greene King, up 1.6%.
1Spatial, up 7.7%, announced that the Director of Strategic Development, Mike Sanderson, has retired from the company and stepped down from the Board, with immediate effect.
Credit Suisse reissued its “Outperform” rating on AVEVA Group, up 4.8%, with a target price of 1900p. FinnCap restated its “Corporate” rating on Amino Technologies, up 0.3%, with a target price of 200p. Frontier Developments, which remained unchanged at 277.5p, announced today that it has licensed rights for the development of its third game franchise based on a famous movie franchise from a major Hollywood studio.
CyanConnode Holdings, which remained flat at 0.2p, announced today that it has received a purchase order for 100,000 Panmesh software licences from HM Power Metering AB in Sweden for the smart grid and Internet of Things implementations.
Horizon Discovery Group, down 3.7%, announced that it has approved the allotment and issue of 857,971 new ordinary shares of 1p each to the former shareholders of Haplogen Genomics GmbH, in respect of the final consideration payable for the acquisition of Haplogen, under the Sale and Purchase Agreement.
UK markets ended firmer in the previous week, following an increase in GDP forecast for the UK economy to 2% for 2017, by the Bank of England. On the data front, UK’s manufacturing sector expanded in January, however, the services sector eased more than expected in the same month. The FTSE 100 index increased 0.1% to settle at 7,188.3, while the FTSE AIM 100 index jumped 1.9% to close at 4,287.7. Meanwhile, the FTSE techMARK 100 index climbed 1.5% to end at 4,279.3.
US markets finished mixed last week, as investors were uncertain regarding priorities in President Trump’s policies. As expected, the US Federal Reserve kept the key interest rates steady, however, it presented a positive picture of the economy and hinted at a sooner interest rate hike. Meanwhile, the US non-farm payrolls and unemployment rate unexpectedly rose in the month of January. The DJIA index eased 0.1% to end at 20,071.5, while the NASDAQ index added 0.1% to close at 5,666.8.
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