Jefferies Group restated its “Hold” rating on DS Smith, up 1.3%, with a target price of 390.0p. Investec restated its “Buy” rating on Greene King, up 0.4%, with a target price of 882.0p. Deutsche Bank reiterated its “Buy” rating on the stock with a target price of 950.0p.
N+1 Singer reaffirmed its “Buy” rating on RhythmOne, up 4.1%, with a target price of 56.0p. Numis Securities Ltd reissued its “Add” rating on the stock with a target price of 42.0p.Panmure Gordon reissued its “Buy” rating on Horizon Discovery Group, up 2.9%, with a target price of 205.0p.
Beaufort Securities downgraded its rating on AVEVA Group, up 2.5%, to “Hold” from “Buy”. Citigroup restated its “Buy” rating on the stock with a target price of 2080.0p. Liberum Capital reaffirmed its “Hold” rating on the stock with a target price of 1450.0p. Numis Securities reiterated its “Add” rating on the stock with a target price of 2050.0p. On January 03, the company announced that Richard Longdon has stepped down from his role of the Chief Executive and Director of the company, with effect from 31 December 2016. He has been appointed as the President of the company for a period of 12 months. Furthermore, the company has appointed James Kidd, Deputy Chief Executive, as the Chief Executive with effect from 1 January 2017.
FinnCap reissued its “Corporate” rating on Quixant, which remained unchanged at 347.5p, with a target price of 250.0p. FinnCap restated its “Corporate” rating on Amino Technologies, which remained flat at 175.3p, with a target price of 200.0p.
Peel Hunt reissued its “Buy” rating on Gaming Realms, down 0.8%, with a target price of 40.0p. FinnCap reissued its “Corporate” rating on Frontier Developments, down 0.8%. 1Spatial, down 6.3%, announced that Marcus Hanke has resigned as its Chief Executive Officer and Director. On an interim basis, Claire Milverton, Chief Financial Officer, will take over the responsibilities of Marcus in the company.
UK markets ended higher in the previous week, amid gains in commodity sector stocks. On the data front, the nationwide housing prices rose more than expected on an annual basis in December while the mortgage approvals surprisingly declined in November. The FTSE 100 index jumped 1.1% to finish at 7,142.8, while the FTSE AIM 100 index rose 1.8% to close at 4,071.0. Moreover, the FTSE techMARK 100 index added 0.8% to end at 4,344.2.
US markets closed in the negative territory last week, after data showed that US pending homes sales unexpectedly fell on a monthly basis in November. Moreover, the nation’s trade deficit widened in November. On the other hand, applications for new unemployment benefits dropped in the US, indicating that the labour market conditions have been constantly recovering. The DJIA index lost 0.9% to settle at 19,762.6 and the NASDAQ index declined 1.9% to end at 5,383.1.
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