Numis Securities reconfirmed its “Add” rating on DS Smith, down 0.3% with a target price of 585p.
AVEVA Group, up 3.1%, announced that its revenue growth on a constant currency basis for the financial year to date has continued to perform well, while its full-year outlook remains at par with its forecast. AVEVA expects adjusted EBIT margins to increase by 30%. The stock was subject to mostly positive ratings from various brokers.
CyanConnode Holdings, up 79.3%, announced a purchase order worth $11.6m from an Indian State-Owned Utility for its Omnimesh IPv6-based hardware, perpetual software licenses and installation services. It also announced a five-year purchase order worth $2.9m from a State-Owned Utility in India.
Science Group, up 7.5%, announced that it has initiated a formal evaluation of its corporate strategy to explore its worthiness to continue as an independent organisation and has begun a strategic review of sale process.
Kier Group, up 5.6%, announced that its full-year revenues rose to £4.2b from £4.1b reported in the last year. The company also reported a profit before tax of £106.2m, against a loss of £14.2m. Numis Securities and Liberum restated their “Buy” ratings on the stock.
Bango, up 4%, announced that its half-yearly end-user spend jumped to £219.9m from £92.3m, whereas revenues surged to £2.6m from £1.7m reported in H1 2017. However, its loss before tax widened to £2.2m from £2m in the previous year.
Elektron Technology, up 2.3%, announced that its interim revenues soared to £15.9m from £13.6m, while profit before tax surged to £1.4m from £600k posted last year.
Peel Hunt reissued its “Hold” rating on Horizon Discovery Group, up 2.3%. Numis Securities reaffirmed its “Buy” rating on the stock.
Cambridge Cognition Holdings, which remained steady at 137.5p, announced that its half-yearly revenues narrowed to £2.8m from £3.2m reported in H1 2017. Further, its loss before tax expanded to £1m from £400k reported in the previous year. Separately, the company announced a commercial partnership agreement with a pharmaceutical firm for its voice biomarker technology, NeuroVocalix.
Quixant PLC, down 4.2%, announced that its half-yearly revenues dropped to $50.3m from $56.9m, while its profit before tax declined to $6.1m from $8.7m. Also, its basic earnings per share eased to $0.08 from $0.11 in the previous year. Peel Hunt and Berenberg Bank reissued their “Buy” ratings on the stock.
UK markets ended in positive territory last week, after the UK consumer price index surprisingly jumped in August, while retail sales advanced more than expected in the same month. Meanwhile, the nation’s house price index dropped in July, while UK public sector net borrowing rose more than expected in August. The UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, signalled that Brexit talks had reached an impasse and cautioned that the nation must be prepared for no-deal scenario. The FTSE 100 index advanced 2.5% to settle at 7490.2, while the FTSE AIM 100 index rose 0.1% to close at 5864.5. Meanwhile, the FTSE techMARK 100 index gained 0.5% to end at 4720.
US markets ended mixed in the previous week. The US housing starts climbed to a 3-month high in August, while the US manufacturing PMI advanced more than expected in September. The nation’s existing home sales remained steady in August, while the US housing market index remained unchanged in September. On the other hand, the nation’s building permits eased in August, while the US services PMI unexpectedly declined to its lowest level in 17 months in September. The DJIA index rose 2.3% to end at 26743.5, while the NASDAQ index lost 0.3% to close at 7987.