ARM Holdings, up 2.9%, had its “Outperform” rating reiterated by RBC Capital Markets. Investec upgraded the stock to a “Buy”. DS Smith, up 8.0%, announced an 86% rise in its full year revenues to £3,669.3m and a 51% rise in its pre-tax profit to £166.2m. The company was the subject of mostly favourable reviews from brokers.
Greene King, up 6.2%, announced a 4.8% rise in its annual revenue to £1,194.7m and a 6.6% increase in its pre-tax profit to £162.0m. AVEVA Group, up 1.9%, was the subject of a “Buy” rating from Jefferies Group. Jefferies Group also increased its price target from 2,560.0p to 2,740.0p.
1Spatial rallied 12.1%, to emerge as a top gainer in the Cambridge Index. CSR, up 7.3%, raised its second quarter revenue expectations from $245m-$265m to $255m-$265m, and stated that it expects the total serviceable addressable market to grow from around $3.6bn in 2013 to $6.7bn in 2018.
Domino Printing Sciences, down 2.1%, announced a 7.2% increase in its half yearly revenue to £161.9m and expressed confidence for the rest of the year. Abcam, up 5.4%, announced the appointment of Alan Hirzel as Chief Marketing Officer. Cambridge Cognition Holdings, unchanged at 81.0p, noted that Guildford and Waverley clinical commissioning group has rolled out CANTABmobile, its approved CE-marked Class II medical device into general practice.
Scientific Digital Imaging fell 33.3%, and was the biggest faller in the Cambridge Index. LPA Group, down 17.1%, announced a 3.0% decline in its half yearly revenue to £8.6m and a 32.1% drop in its pre-tax profit to £0.2m. Elektron Technology, down 8.5%, stated that its half year revenue and cash flow would be below expectations, as year-to-date sales from continuing operations fell 11%.
Bango, down 0.8%, launched direct operator billing for Microsoft's Windows Phone Store in Indonesia. Cyan Holdings, down 1.5%, was given approval by its shareholders for the resolution to place warrants with an exercise period of six months, which would allow the warrant holders to subscribe up to 74.4 million shares at 0.65p per share and allow other warrant holders to subscribe up to 10 million shares at 0.63p per share.
Sphere Medical Holding, down 2.6%, announced that its annual pre-tax losses increased to £7.76m from £6.33m. The company also announced a collaboration with Ortho Clinical Diagnostics for the development of Proxima 4 and the enhancement of its operational and production capabilities.
In the UK, the FTSE 100 index rose 1.6% to 6,215.5, amid easing concerns about China and the Fed’s tapering of its stimulus. Markets were also cheered by the revised first quarter GDP data which confirmed that the UK avoided a double-dip recession. The FTSE techMARK 100 Index added 1.4% to 2,706.1, while the FTSE AIM 100 Index declined 0.3% to 3,163.1.
US markets ended the week higher, as some upbeat US macroeconomic data boosted investors’ sentiment. Investors also mulled over comments by Fed officials that downplayed market reaction to the Fed’s indication that monetary stimulus would be trimmed in the future, suggesting that the market reaction to the central bank’s comments were overdone. The Dow Jones Index rose 0.7%, to close at 14,909.6, and the NASDAQ Index advanced 1.4%, to end at 3,403.3.
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