BNP Paribas reaffirmed its “Outperform” rating on ARM Holdings, up 4%, with a target price of 1300p. Johnson Matthey, up 3.5%, announced that Den Jones will step down as Group Finance Director in the current year.
Dialight, up 8.1%, announced that it has changed its format of disclosure of Group operating segments. As per the new format, the Lighting and Obstruction businesses will now be reported as one segment named Lighting whereas traffic, transport and components businesses will be reported under Signals and Components.
Horizon Discovery Group, up 5.4%, announced it has formed an immuno-oncology joint venture with Centauri Therapeutics Limited, a UK-based biotechnology company, to form Avvinity Therapeutics. Panmure Gordon reaffirmed its “Buy” rating on the stock with a target price of 270p.
Cambridge Cognition Holdings, up 3%, announced that it has entered into a new partnership with London based design and research agency Ctrl Group to develop and design digital health applications to enable near-user cognitive testing using wearable and smart devices.
Sagentia Group, up 1.9%, announced that its full year revenues jumped by 10.2% year-on-year to £31.2m. However profit before tax fell to £2.4m from £4.2m. The company’s Board proposed a dividend of 4p/share. Numis Securities raised its target price on the stock to 183p from 177p and maintained its “Buy” rating.
Amino Technologies, down 0.4%, announced that Karen Bach has been appointed as an Independent Non-Executive Director of the Board with immediate effect. Karen will also be a part of the Audit and Remuneration Committees.
Investec restated its “Buy” rating on Marshall Motor Holdings, down 0.6%, with a target price of 230p. 1Spatial, down 2.4%, announced that it expects results to be in line with the market expectations driven by a better performance in the second half of the year. Separately, it announced that it has exercised its call option to acquire a further 26% of Laser Scan Inc for $1.3m in cash.
Blinkx, down 5.4%, announced that Ms. Andrea Lee Cunningham has been appointed as an Independent Non-Executive Director, effective from 1 March 2016. Moreover, Mr. Anthony Bettencourt, former Chairman of the Board and current Non-Executive Director, will step down from the Board of Directors as at 31 March 2016.
Peel Hunt reiterated its “Buy” rating on Bango, down 13.3%, with a target price of 100p. Frontier Developments, down 13.4%, announced that the revenues for second half of its financial year, ending 31 May 2016, will be substantially below the earlier forecast.
UK markets ended mostly higher last week, mainly driven by gains in the mining and crude oil stocks. On the macro front, UK’s Markit manufacturing PMI as well as construction PMI recorded a significant drop in February. The FTSE 100 index rose 1.7% to 6,199.4, while the FTSE AIM 100 Index climbed 1.3% to finish at 3,296.2. However, the FTSE techMARK 100 Index declined 1.1% to 3,861.3.
US markets finished firmer in the previous week, amid an advance in financial and energy sector stocks. Non-farm payrolls advanced more-than-expected in February. The DJIA index advanced 2.2% to 17,006.8, while the NASDAQ Index gained 2.8% to 4,717.
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