Deutsche Bank reconfirmed its “Buy” rating on Johnson Matthey, down 1%. Greene King, down 0.6%, announced that it is looking to issue a “Third tap issue” of loan notes.
Bango, up 15.6%, announced that it has acquired the carrier billing services of Danal Inc, BilltoMobile, for an initial consideration of approximately £2.4m. The company will pay £2.15m in cash immediately and £0.3m in Bango shares at an issue price of 60p. It may be liable for deferred consideration of £25,000, payable in cash in Q1 2017 depending on the performance of its revenue stream. Peel Hunt reissued its “Buy” rating on the stock with a target price of 100p.
Brady, up 3.3%, in its AGM statement, announced that it expects the first quarter results to be on par with management’s projections. Its Recycling division signed a deal with SA Recycling for managing its acquisition of Newell Industries, which helped the company increase its recycling facility count by 17 to 70 sites. Its Energy division entered into a cloud-based deal with a major US renewables company as well as a credit risk service contract with a global oil company.
Sepura, up 0.8%, announced that it has signed a technical partnership agreement with Erebus Motorsport to develop the use of digital mobile radio technology within the motorsport arena. Under the collaboration, Erebus will use Sepura’s products for both its GT and V8 Supercar programmes throughout the year.
Panmure Gordon and Liberum Capital reaffirmed their “Hold” rating on AVEVA Group, down 0.5%, with target prices of 1864p and 1450p respectively. Vernalis’ share price fell 0.8%, as Canaccord Genuity reiterated its “Buy” rating on the stock with a target price of 84p.
Horizon Discovery Group, down 6.3%, announced that it has entered into two Original Equipment Manufacture (OEM) agreements with Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), a global platform company. The company will supply two previously developed HDx™ Molecular Reference Standards which covers most of the genes most commonly linked with cancer progression. This resulted in the stock gaining positive reviews from brokers.
UK markets closed slightly higher in the previous week. The Bank of England Governor, while keeping the monetary policy unchanged, warned that the British economy could slip into recession if the nation votes to leave the European Union in the upcoming referendum. The FTSE 100 index rose 0.2% to 6,138.5, while the FTSE AIM 100 Index advanced 0.3% to finish at 3,385.3. The FTSE techMARK 100 Index gained 0.4% to 3,728.2.
US markets ended lower last week, led by losses in retailers and technology stocks. On the macro front, US consumer confidence advanced to its strongest level in nearly a year in May, while retail sales rose more than expected in April. The DJIA index declined 1.2% to 17,535.3, while the NASDAQ Index dropped 0.4% to 4,717.7.