Peel Hunt reissued its “Hold” rating on Abcam, up 3.1%, with a target price of 750p.
Frontier Developments, up 17.9%, announced that it has sold approximately 1m cumulative franchise units of its video game, Planet Coaster, since its launch in November 2016, while Elite Dangerous, launched in December 2014, has crossed cumulative franchise units of over 2.75m. Separately, the company announced that it has appointed Liberum Capital Limited as its Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker with immediate effect. Today, the company announced that its new game, Jurassic World Evolution, will be launched in summer 2018. Liberum Capital reissued its “Buy” rating on the stock with a target price of 850p.
CyanConnode Holdings, up 7.9%, announced that it has received a purchase order extension for a smart metering contract in Bangladesh, worth $10m. Moreover, CyanConnode mentioned that the extension is for an additional 300,000 units for its Advanced Metering Infrastructure solution, leading the total order size till date to 550,000 units. Additionally, the company stated that Head End Server Software will be provided by the energy management system company. FinnCap reaffirmed its “Corporate” rating on the stock with a target price of 0.5p.
Marshall Motor Holdings, up 3.9%, in its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2017, announced that its revenues jumped to £1.2b from £0.826b reported in the same period prior year. The company’s profit before tax rose to £18.6m from £12.1m in the previous year. The basic earnings per share advanced to 18.6p from 11.4p in the last year. The Board declared an interim dividend of 2.15p per share. The company stated that the Group remains on track to deliver future growth meeting expectations, while mentioned that its full year outlook remains unchanged.
1Spatial, unchanged at 3.4p, announced that its registered office address has been changed to Tennyson House Cambridge Business Park, Cowley Road, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, with immediate effect. Brady, down 0.7%, announced that its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2017 will be published on 07 September 2017.
UK markets finished in positive territory in the prior week, as the British unemployment rate dropped to its lowest level in 42 years for the three months ended June, while the UK retail sales grew more-than-expected in July. Meanwhile, the nation’s consumer price inflation unexpectedly remained steady in July. The FTSE techMARK 100 index and the FTSE 100 index added 0.2% each, to settle at 4,366.4 and 7,323.9, respectively. Moreover, the FTSE AIM 100 index climbed 1.3% to close at 5,095.3.
US markets ended lower in the last week, after the US Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting minutes highlighted split between officials over monetary policy trajectory amid increasing anxiety over recent softness in inflation. On the macro front, the US retail sales jumped to its seven-months high in July, while the Michigan consumer sentiment index exceeded market anticipations in August. The DJIA index dropped 0.8% to end at 21,674.5, while the NASDAQ index lost 0.6% to close at 6,216.5.
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