Johnson Matthey, down 2.9%, announced in its quarterly sales update that trading for the period met market forecasts. The company has also appointed John O'Higgins as a Non-Executive Director and Chris Mottershead as the Chairman of the Remuneration Committee.
DS Smith, down 0.2%, announced that it has duly passed resolution at the Annual General Meeting for the acquisition of Indevco Management Resources, Inc. from Merpas Co. Abcam, up 1.6%, stated in its annual trading update that it anticipates reported revenues to increase by 27%, while gross margin is expected to be 70%.
Frontier Developments, up 11.8%, announced that Tencent Holdings Limited has acquired a 9% stake in Frontier by subscribing to 3.4m newly issued ordinary shares at a price of 523.2p to generate cash proceeds of approximately £17.7m. FinnCap raised its target price on the stock to 690p from 500p.
Quixant, up 2.7%, announced that its half-yearly trading performance surpassed the expectations. The stock received positive ratings from brokers. Zacks Investment Research downgraded its rating on Vernalis from “Hold” to “Sell”. The share price remained unchanged at 19p.
Science Group, down 3.8%, announced that its half-yearly revenues marginally rose to £18m, while its profit before tax advanced to £2.3m. Numis Securities lowered its rating on the stock to “Add” from “Buy”.
RhythmOne, down 3.9%, announced that the High Court of Justice of England and Wales has given its approval for the capital reduction program and distributable reserves of approximately £142.8m have been made from the reduction. Separately, the company announced that it has united with Google's open beta DoubleClick Exchange Bidding program.
Dialight, down 8.7%, announced that its half-yearly revenues rose to £92.7m, while its profit before tax stood at £4m. Peel Hunt restated its “Hold” rating on the stock with a target price of 920p.
Scientific Digital Imaging, down 10.6%, announced that its annual revenues grew to £10.7m, while its profit before tax rose to £903k. The company separately announced appointment of David Tilston as a Non-Executive Director, with immediate effect. FinnCap upgraded its price target on the stock to 30p from 20p.
UK markets ended mostly lower in last week, after data showed a sharp drop in the British consumer confidence to its lowest level since July 2016, raising concerns over nation’s economic situation. The FTSE 100 index declined 1.1% to settle at 7,368.37, while the FTSE techMARK 100 index fell 0.4% to close at 4,494.73. The FTSE AIM 100 index jumped 1.9% to end at 4,963.57.
US markets closed mixed last week. The US Federal Reserve, in its latest monetary policy meeting, left the key interest rates unchanged and hinted that it may start rolling back massive balance sheet as soon as September. Meanwhile, the lacklustre earnings report from index heavyweights and drop in the shares of tobacco companies, weighed on the index. The DJIA index advanced 1.2% to end at 21,830.31, while the NASDAQ index lost 0.2% to close at 6,374.68.
View the report in full
______________________________________________________