DS Smith, up 2.6%, announced the successful disposal of its two packaging businesses in North Western France and Portugal to International Paper. Greene King, up 5.1%, in its final results for the year ended 28 April 2019, announced that revenues slightly rose to £2.22b from £2.17b reported in the last year. However, its profit before tax and basic earnings per share both declined to £172.8m from £197.5m and 38.9p from 59.1p respectively. The company’s 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. Shore Capital and Peel Hunt reconfirmed their “Buy” ratings on the stock.
Gaming Realms, up 2.2%, in its annual results for the year ended 31 December 2018, announced that revenues declined to £6.2m from £7.6m reported in the last year. Its profit before tax grew to £900k from a £8.6m loss reported in the previous year. The basic and diluted earnings per share stood at 0.33p, compared to a loss per share of 2.96p in 2017. Further, the company stated its intentions to focus on the development and licensing of mobile games under the Slingo brand as well as their international distribution. Science Group, up 0.5%, announced a revised cash offer to acquire the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of Frontier Smart Technologies Group Limited at 35p per share. Scientific Digital Imaging, up 0.4%, in its trading update for the year ended 30 April 2019, announced that it anticipates annual revenue to be around £17.4m, slightly higher than its previous forecast and compared to £14.5m in the prior year. Likewise, it expects profit before tax to be at least £2m, against £1.7m reported in the preceding year.
Cambridge Cognition Holdings, down 7.9%, announced the appointment of Debra Leeves as a Non-Executive Director, with immediate effect. Sareum Holdings, down 24.3%, announced that it has successfully completed the fundraising of £780k, of which £680k is raised through a placement by Hybridan LLP of 170.4m new ordinary shares at 0.4p per share and £100k is raised by issuing 25m new shares to an institutional investor. The net proceeds will be utilized to advance its TYK2/JAK1 drug development programmes and working capital purposes.
UK markets closed mostly higher last week, led by gains in mining and housebuilding sector stocks. The British economy grew as expected in the first quarter, while the consumer confidence index fell more than anticipated in June. The Bank of England Governor, Mark Carney, highlighted the possibilities of monetary policy easing to support the economy in case of no-deal Brexit in October. The FTSE 100 index advanced 0.2% to settle at 7425.6, while the FTSE AIM 100 index fell 1.9% to close at 4767.3. Meanwhile, the FTSE techMARK 100 index gained 1.8% to end at 5175.7.
US markets ended in the red in the previous week, amid losses in technology and healthcare sector stocks. The US economy advanced less than estimated in the first quarter, while new home sales unexpectedly fell to a 5-month low level in May. The US Fed Chairman, Jerome Powell, hinted that the central bank might refrain from an interest rate cut in its July meeting. The DJIA index fell 0.4% to end at 26,600, while the NASDAQ index lost 0.3% to close at 8006.24.
Research and analysis for these reports has been conducted by Decimal Point
Analytics on behalf of NW Brown Group. For more information on the companies and markets referred to above please visit www.nwbrown.co.uk