Berenberg Bank reaffirmed its “Hold” rating on AVEVA Group, up 0.1%. Barclays raised its target price on the stock to 3150p from 2800p and gave an “Overweight” rating.
CyanConnode Holdings, up 8.3%, announced a five-year purchase order worth $2.9m from a State-Owned Utility in India for the support and maintenance of Omnimesh smart metering deployment.
RhythmOne, up 3.3%, announced the resignation of its Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Executive Director, Ed Reginelli, and disclosed that Mark Zorko will be succeeding as the CFO. The company expects its H1 2019 performance to be in line with board’s expectations, with revenue estimated to be between $170-$180m.
Scientific Digital Imaging, up 2.4%, in its trading update for the year ending 30 April 2019, announced that it continues to progress in line with its prior expectations. Separately, the company announced the acquisition of Fistreem International Limited for approximately £760k. FinnCap increased its target price on the stock to 44p from 42p.
Sareum Holdings, unchanged at 0.8p, announced that it has successfully selected development molecules TYK2 and JAK1 from its TYK2 inhibitor programme as a further advancement in targeted immunotherapy for certain cancers. Today, the company announced that it reported a loss before tax of £1.7m for the year ended 30 June 2018, against a profit of £350k reported in the previous year.
LPA Group, down 0.9%, announced today the appointment of Paul Curtis as an Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer along with its prior Chief Executive, Peter Pollock, as the Chairman.
Dialight, down 2.9%, announced that it has initiated the process for terminating the agreement with its contract manufacturing partner, due to worsening performance. The company also stated that it expects to attain a full year operating profit in the range of £8-£10m, amid potential short-term disruption.
Netcall, down 3%, announced that it will publish its full year results for the year ended 30 June 2018 on 16 October 2018.
Ubisense Group, down 5%, announced that its half-yearly revenues fell to £10.3m from £12.4m reported in H1 2017, while its loss before tax rose to £2.8m from £1.9m.
Bango, down 6.2%, announced the resignation of its CFO, Rachel Elias-Jones, with effect from 12 November 2018.
Berenberg Bank and Peel Hunt reconfirmed their “Buy” rating on Quixant, down 6.3%.
Numis Securities reconfirmed its “Buy” rating on Kier Group, down 12.8%.
Gaming Realms, down 18.2%, announced that its half-yearly revenues declined to £11m from £15m reported in H1 2017, while its loss before tax narrowed to £2.9m from £4.6m.
UK markets closed mostly higher last week, supported by gains in energy sector stocks, amid rising crude oil prices. The British economy advanced as expected in Q2 2018, while the consumer confidence declined in September. The Bank of England policymaker, Gertjan Vlieghe, commented that one or two rate hikes per year would be needed, if UK’s productivity and wages improves. The FTSE 100 index advanced 0.3% to settle at 7510.2, while the FTSE AIM 100 index rose 0.2% to close at 5874.12. Meanwhile, the FTSE techMARK 100 index lost 0.3% to end at 4706.7.
US markets ended mixed in the previous week. The US Federal Reserve, in its September monetary meeting, raised its benchmark interest rate by 0.25% to a range of 2.0%-2.25% and projected one more rate hike this year, followed by three hikes in 2019. The US annualized GDP grew as anticipated in Q2 2018, whereas the consumer confidence index surprisingly rose to its 18-year high in September. On the contrary, the nation’s advance goods trade deficit unexpectedly widened in August. The DJIA index fell 1.1% to end at 26458.31, while the NASDAQ index gained 0.7% to close at 8046.35.