Deutsche Bank reaffirmed its “Buy” rating on Johnson Matthey, down 2.3%.
DS Smith, down 1.1%, in its trading update, announced that the trading performance since 01 May 2016 was in line with its expectations. The company saw good growth in volumes, predominantly from its pan-European customers. The stock received mixed rating from brokers.
Greene King, down 5.7%, in its trading statement for the 18 weeks to 04 September 2016, announced that like-for-like (LFL) sales grew 1.7%, driven by its local pubs estate. Separately, the company announced that Gordon Fryett has been appointed as a Non-Executive Director with effect from 1st December 2016. Ian Durant, a Non-Executive Director of the company, has retired from the Board.
Frontier Developments, up 7.7%, in its annual results, announced that revenues fell to £21.4m from £22.8m in the last year. Profit before tax fell to £1.3m from £1.6m reported in the previous year. Basic earnings per share declined to 4.2p from 4.9p. The company stated that trading since the start of the current financial year exceeded Board’s expectations. The stock received positive reviews from brokers.
Horizon Discovery Group, up 1.2%, announced that it has teamed up with US-based Fulcrum Therapeutics Inc, whereby Horizon's CRISPR-based screening platform will be used to identify targets for regulating gene expression. Numis Securities reiterated its “Buy” rating on the stock with a target price of 252p.
Vernalis, down 4.4%, announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) have accepted the CCP-07 New Drug Application for full review which will generate a milestone payment to its partner Tris Pharma Inc.
Shares of Abcam were trading 5% higher yesterday (12 September) as the company’s annual revenues climbed to £171.7m from £144m. However, profit before tax marginally decreased to £45.4m from £46.1m. The Board proposed a final dividend of 6.6p per share.
Shares of Brady were trading flat as the company’s half-yearly revenues rose to £14.7m from £14.1m. Loss before tax narrowed to £122k from £363k.
Shares of Tristel Plc were trading nearly 5% up as the company announced that it received regulatory approval for its Fuse for Surfaces and Jet for Surfaces disinfectant products from the Therapeutic Goods Association (TGA), Australia.
UK markets ended higher in the last week, amid positive data on services PMI for August and industrial production for July. The Bank of England Governor also stated that risk of UK falling into a recession has diminished. The FTSE 100 index fell 1.7% to 6,777, while the FTSE AIM 100 index gained 0.9% to close at 3,805.8. The FTSE techMARK 100 index advanced 0.3% to 4,355.
US markets closed lower in the prior week, as the ISM non-manufacturing PMI fell to a six-year low in August. Comments from the US Federal Reserve President, Eric Rosengren, who cautioned that low interest rates might raise the chances of overheating the US economy, also weighed on the stock markets. The DJIA index lost 2.2% to 18,085.5, while the NASDAQ index dropped 2.4% to 5,125.9.
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