Liberum Capital reconfirmed its “Hold” rating on Johnson Matthey, up 0.3%, with a target price of 2940p. DS Smith, down 2.8%, announced the appointment of Iain Simm as Group General Counsel and Company Secretary. Deutsche Bank reaffirmed its “Buy” rating on Greene King, down 1.3%, with a target price of 1175p.
Amino Technologies, up 11.4%, announced in its half yearly trading update that trading for revenue and profit (before tax and exceptional items) was in line with market expectations. It stated that the Latin American sales performance was strong, driven by repeated orders from existing customers and new contract wins. The Board intends to recommend an interim dividend of 1.391p per share.
Cyan Holdings, up 9.5% in its annual results, announced that its revenues advanced to £272k from £194k. However, its loss before tax widened to £4.9m from £3.3m. The company stated that it will focus on fulfilling both the Enzen contracts, taking advantage of its growing presence in India. Citigroup reiterated its “Buy” rating on AVEVA Group, up 4.3%, with a target price of 1885p.
Brady, unchanged at 66.5p, announced that Ian Jenks has been appointed as Non-Executive Chairman with immediate effect. Gaming Realms, remained flat at 20.8p, announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Ayima Limited, a digital marketing firm. Under the terms, the company will sell the assets of one of its subsidiary, QuickThink Media Limited, to Ayima. The company also announced that it has allotted 4.8m new ordinary shares at 10p each to the shareholders of BlueBurra Holdings, to fulfil the final £1.2m part of the acquisition.
Peel Hunt and Jefferies International reconfirmed their “Buy” ratings on Xaar, down 0.7%, with a target price of 570p and 470p respectively.
Elektron Technology, down 2%, in its annual results, announced that its revenues declined by £1.1m to £43.3m. However, profit before tax increased to £800k from £200k reported in the previous year. The Board expects the current year first half trading performance (excluding its Checkit business) to be weaker than the previous year.
Ubisense Group, down 7%, announced that it has launched the second version of myWorld Inspection & Survey app, with several new features added.
UK markets ended lower in the last week, led by losses in the commodity and financial stocks. The fall came despite optimistic estimates that the UK GDP grew at a better pace than expected in three months to May compared to last period and data showing Britian’s manufacturing and industrial production unexpectedly rose in April. The FTSE 100 index fell 1.5% to 6,115.8, while the FTSE AIM 100 Index declined 0.7% to end at 3,473.3. The FTSE techMARK 100 Index dropped 2.2% to 3,757.1.
US markets ended mixed in the previous week. The US Federal Reserve Chair remained optimistic about the nation’s economy, while the timing of future rate hikes remained uncertain. The preliminary Reuters/Michigan consumer sentiment index was marginally better-than-expected in June. The DJIA index gained 0.3% to 17,865.3, while the NASDAQ Index fell 1.0% to 4,894.6.
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