Johnson Matthey, up 1.9%, announced that its half-yearly revenues rose to £7.1b from £6.5b, while profit before tax climbed to £224m from £205m. Liberum Capital reissued its “Buy” rating on the stock.
AVEVA Group, down 10.9%, announced that its half-yearly revenues advanced to £336.5m from £215.2m in the same period last year. However, it reported a loss before tax of £5.5m, compared to a profit of £7.8m in the previous year. Barclays reiterated its “Overweight” rating on the stock. UBS Group reconfirmed its “Neutral” rating on the stock.
Ubisense Group, up 10.4%, announced a conditional agreement to sell its RTLS SmartSpace business unit to Investcorp Technology for a consideration of £35m, of which £30m is to be paid in cash on completion. Further, the company mentioned that it would be renamed to IQGeo Group post completion of sale.
Xaar, up 0.8%, announced that its Xaar 5601 Thin Film printhead has been adopted by two new original equipment manufacturers, Neos and KELENN Technology, for impelling their product development in new markets.
Dialight, down 1.4%, announced that it has settled a negotiation claim within the group's insurance provisions regarding an accident of an oilfield worker affected in Schuylkill County.
CyanConnode Holdings, down 3.5%, announced that it has achieved Frost & Sullivan’s Company of the Year Award for 2018. Separately, Cyanconnode announced a partnership contract with DS Technology DWC for distributing its RF Mesh Networks and Ominmesh platforms.
Tristel, down 4.2%, announced that it has bought Ecomed Group for a consideration of €3.4m in cash and €1.6m through issue of ordinary shares. Furthermore, it announced that Ecomed’s Chief Executive Officer, Bart Leemans has joined the company as an Executive Director. FinnCap reaffirmed its “Corporate” rating on the stock.
Gaming Realms, down 6.3%, announced that its B2B software division, Alchemy Bet, has entered into an agreement with River Game Operations to form a new casino brand, Casonic, in the Scandinavian market. Separately, the company announced a 3-year revenue share agreement with Endemol Shine Gaming to distribute its Deal or No Deal Slingo.
RhythmOne, down 6.5%, announced a collaborative partnership deal with Pixalate Inc to integrate the latter’s invalid traffic-detection technology into RhythmOne’s platform offering.
Netcall, down 8%, announced that it will hold its Annual General Meeting on 12 December 2018.
Liberum Capital restated its “Buy” rating on Frontier Developments, down 9.2%.
JP Morgan Cazenove reissued its “Neutral” rating on Kier Group, down 10.9% with a target price of 994p.
UK markets ended mostly lower last week, led by losses in commodity sector stocks. In economic news, the British public sector net borrowing posted a more than expected deficit in October, while the house price index eased in November. In major news, the Bank of England Governor, Mark Carney, supported Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal, while warned that a no-deal Brexit could cause a large negative shock to the economy. The FTSE 100 index declined 0.9% to settle at 6952.9, while the FTSE AIM 100 index fell 4.3% to close at 4805.8. Meanwhile, the FTSE techMARK 100 index gained 1.5% to end at 4483.0.
US markets finished on a weaker footing in the previous week, amid losses in technology and energy sector stocks. On the data front, the US consumer sentiment index slid to a 3-month low in November, while durable goods orders fell more than anticipated in October. Also, the nation’s manufacturing and services PMI unexpectedly fell in November, whereas the weekly initial jobless claims advanced to a 4-month high level. On the contrary, the US existing home sales climbed more than estimated in October. The DJIA index fell 4.4% to end at 24286.0, while the NASDAQ index lost 4.3% to close at 6939.0.