ARM Holdings, up 4.3%, announced its intention to acquire Duolog Technologies and also expressed confidence that this acquisition would expand its position at the forefront of deploying complex system IP including debug and trace IP, adding that it will help ARM partners design and deploy system IP along with managing increasing SoC integration complexity.
Numis Securities raised its price target from 880.0p to 920.0p with a “Hold” rating. Liberum Capital reaffirmed its “Hold” rating on the shares of Johnson Matthey, down 2.9%. DS Smith, down 0.3%, has confirmed that up to 14 jobs could be lost at the DS Smith Sheetfeeding Plant on the Fairfield Industrial Estate.
CSR, up 7.1%, announced that its Bluetooth® Smart remote platform has been integrated into Philips' uWand reference design, a complete firmware and hardware solution for developing pointing and gesture based remote controls. Aveva Group added 3.6%. The company reported full-year pre-tax profit of £69.0m, a 9% increase from £63.5m last year. Total revenue increased 8% to £237.3m from £220.2m last year. The adjusted EPS stood at 88.80p, up from 74.53p reported last year. Meanwhile, various brokers gave diverse ratings on the stock.
Bango, up 2.3%, said that it was content with its progress since the beginning of the year, adding that it was making headway in expanding its commercial partnerships after integrating 12 Mobile Network Operators into its platform during the period.
Cambridge Cognition Holdings remained flat. The company stated that the North East Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has introduced its Cantab mobile app in five GP surgeries, five pharmacies and Grimsby hospital to help diagnose dementia earlier, bringing the total number of CCGs rolled out in the UK to 28.
Ubisense Group, down 3.4%, announced the joining of former Rolls Royce Production Manager, Ian Kershaw, in its Board of Directors as a Non-Executive Director. Ubisense added that existing Board members, J. Keith Lomas and Dick Newell would step down from their roles as Non-Executive Directors with immediate effect. Microgen Plc confirmed that it was still mulling a number of options, including a takeover offer, for Elektron Technology, down 2.8%. However, Microgen also stressed that there can be no certainty that any proposal set out in the announcement will be pursued or made.
UK markets ended the previous week on a positive note, amid a pick-up in the region’s M&A activities and after the UK consumer confidence rose in May, highlighting a rise in the risk appetite of the investors. In the UK, the FTSE 100 index ticked 0.4% upwards at 6,844.5 and the FTSE AIM 100 Index rose 2.0% to 3,627.1. The FTSE techMARK 100 Index advanced 3.0% to 3,224.4.
In the past week, the US markets closed higher, despite contraction in the US first quarter GDP as the domestic durable goods orders gained in April and after the initial claims for unemployment benefits dropped for the week ended 24 May 2014. The DJIA index added 0.7% to 16,717.2, while the NASDAQ index gained 1.4% to close at 4,242.6.
___________________________________________________