Berenberg reissued its “Hold” rating on DS Smith, up 1.6%, as both they and Goldman Sachs gave a target price of 400p. Abcam, up 3.5%, announced that the first performance-related deferred consideration to AxioMx Inc is now due to the vendors. The milestone payment sums to $5.2m, of which $3.1m will be paid in cash from its existing cash resources and $2.1m by issuing new ordinary shares.
The largest component of the Cambridge Index, ARM Holdings, rose 0.8%. The company announced that its shareholders approved the recommended cash offer made by SoftBank Group Corp for its entire issued and to be issued share capital. Further, the High Court of Justice in England and Wales has sanctioned the scheme of arrangement under Part 26 of the Companies Act 2006 and hence the cash offer has been implemented. It will therefore be removed from the Cambridge Index.
Sphere Medical Holding, up 14%, announced that it has received an initial order for its Proxima system from Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel, a 700 bed teaching hospital in Belgium, which has been evaluating the system for a year. This is the first sale of Proxima in Belgium, the third country after UK and Germany where the company has sold Proxima devices. Panmure Gordon reissued its “Buy” rating on the stock with a target price of 17p.
FinnCap set a target price of 100p on Cambridge Cognition Holdings, up 8%. Horizon Discovery Group, up 4.8%, announced that it has entered into an agreement with Ventana Medical Systems, Inc., a member of the Roche Group, to develop, manufacture and commercialize cell line derivative materials for its use as immunohistochemistry (IHC) reference standards. Panmure Gordon and Numis Securities reaffirmed their “Buy” rating on the stock with a target price of 270p and 252p respectively.
Gaming Realms, up 1.3%, announced that it has signed a three-year marketing and revenue share agreement with Bauer Media UK to promote Gaming Realms’ ‘Spin Genie’ real-money gaming website.
FinnCap set a target price of 19p for Scientific Digital Imaging, up 0.9%. Brady, up 0.7%, announced that Gavin Lavelle has stepped down as the CEO with immediate effect and will leave the company in February 2017. For the time being, the current Non-Executive Chairman, Ian Jenks, will control the company’s operations as the Executive Chairman.
1Spatial, down 5.6%, announced that David Richards, Interim Non-Executive Chairman, has stepped down from his role while it is in the final stages of appointing a permanent Non-Executive Chairman.
UK markets ended higher in the prior week, as data revealed that manufacturing output reached a 10-month high while the construction PMI rose more than expected, both in August. The FTSE 100 index rose 0.8% to 6,894.6, while the FTSE AIM 100 index added 0.3% to close at 3,772.6. The FTSE techMARK 100 index gained 0.2% to 4,343.5.
US markets closed higher last week, amid expectations that the Federal Reserve might postpone an interest rate hike this month after the country created less than expected jobs in August. The DJIA index advanced 0.5% to 18,492, while the NASDAQ index climbed 0.6% to 5,249.9.
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