Cambridge Index falls 2.5%

The Cambridge Index declined 608.3 points or 2.5% to close at 24147.3, as eight of the top ten Index heavyweights posted weekly losses to their share prices.

Greene King, down 7%, in its final results for the year ended 29 April 2019, announced that revenues slightly advanced to £2.21b from £2.18b reported in the last year. The company’s profit before tax dropped to £172.8m from £197.5m reported in the previous year, while its basic earnings per share fell to 38.9p from 59.1p in the previous year. The board declared a final dividend of 24.4p per share, payable on 13 September 2019 to shareholders on the register as at 9 August 2019.

Cambridge Cognition Holdings, down 1.6%, announced an expansion into the Chinese market with its Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) computerised assessments.

Science Group, down 2.3%, announced that it has requested Frontier Smart Technologies Limited (Frontier) to track a refinancing deal for eliminating the risk of breaching its debt covenants, as Frontier stated that its conditions in relation to a credit facility with Clydesdale Bank Plc will be fulfilled in the near term. Further, Science Group has proposed an extraordinary general meeting in order to remove Frontier’s Chairman Paul Taylor and audit committee member Hossein Yassaie from its board and add its own Chairman Martyn Ratcliffe and legal counsel Sarah Cole to the Frontier board.

Peel Hunt reissued its “Buy” rating on Frontier Developments, down 2.5%.

Dialight, down 7.7%, announced the appointment of David Blood as the Chairman of the Board, with immediate effect, following the resignation of its former Chairman, Wayne Edmunds. Peel Hunt reiterated its “Hold” rating on the stock.

CyanConnode Holdings, down 10.1%, announced that it has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Chinese manufacturing company, Hexing Electrical Co. Limited, for delivering the smart metering solutions in certain territories. The MoU will enable Hexing to produce a cost-effective turnkey solution by combining CyanConnode's RF Modules with its meters as well as Omnimesh Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) platform with its Meter Data Management System (MDMS).

Sareum Holdings, down 33.3%, announced that Sierra Oncology has continued to seek non-dilutive strategic options to support the development of its portfolio of DNA Damage Response assets, which includes SRA737. Further to the dosing of first patient in the first Phase 1 trial of SRA737, Sierra is entitled to pay $7.5m as milestone payment, of which Sareum will receive $2.06m, followed by a payment of $12m after the dosing of the first patient of a randomized Phase 2 trial.

UK markets closed mostly lower last week, weighed down by losses in mining and banking sector stocks. On the macro front, UK’s economy contracted for the first time since 2012 in the second quarter, while the house prices unexpectedly fell in July. Moreover, the UK manufacturing production slid more than estimated in June, whereas the construction sector activity declined for the third straight month in July. The FTSE 100 index declined 2.1% to settle at 7253.9, while the FTSE AIM 100 index fell 4.8% to close at 4517.6. Meanwhile, the FTSE techMARK 100 index gained 0.6% to end at 5351.1.

US markets ended in the red in the previous week, led by losses in industrial and technology sector stocks, amid rising trade tensions between the US and China. On the data front, the US services sector activity dropped for the second consecutive month in July, while the consumer credit rose less than anticipated in June. On the contrary, the US producer price index rose in July, whereas the initial jobless claims fell in the last week. The DJIA index fell 2.6% to end at 26485, while the NASDAQ index lost 3.9% to close at 8004.1.

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