Shares of ARM Holdings rallied 6.7% to 897.0p. Barclays Capital reiterated its ‘Overweight’ rating on the shares and kept its target price unchanged at 1125.0p. However, Deutsche Bank continued to maintain a ‘Sell’ view. Jefferies reiterated its ‘Hold’ rating on the shares of Greene King, up 5.4%, while raising the target price to 825.0p from 625.0p. AVEVA Group increased 9.6% to 2500.0p. The target price on the company’s shares was upped from 2300.0p to 2430.0p by analysts at JP Morgan Cazenove. Several other brokers also revealed their stance on Aveva, with JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Barclays Capital and Sanlam Securities reiterating their ‘Neutral’, ‘Buy’, ‘Overweight’, ‘Equal Weight’ and ‘Hold’ rating respectively.
Kier Group increased 12.6% and emerged as the top gainer in the Cambridge Index. The company announced that its construction division is trading in line with the Board's expectations. On the outlook front, the company commented that comprehensive spending review announced by the Government on 27 June was beneficial to both its Construction and Services businesses. Kier issued 14,714,445 shares to fund the acquisition of May Gurney Integrated Services. Separately, the company announced that it has negotiated a £115 million contract with the West London Mental Health Trust. Barclays Capital retained its ‘Equal weight’ rating on the shares of CSR, up 3.3%, while increasing its target price to 540.0p from 500.0p. Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank retained its ‘Sell’ rating and kept its target price unchanged at 325.0p. Sagentia Group, up 3.9%, announced that it has acquired OTM Consulting Ltd in a deal worth £6.5 million. Sagentia also revealed that its interim results for the period ended 30 June 2013 will be released on 24 July 2013. It has paid €4 million of the deferred consideration in cash, while the final €1 million will be settled by the issue of 1,301,334 shares.
Cyan Holdings fell 35.7% and emerged as the top loser in the Cambridge Index, following a delay in the tendering process to provide meters to the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB). Sphere Medical Holding declined 9.6%, despite the successful completion of a further clinical development study on the Proxima technology. Vernalis, down 1.9%, mentioned that it has started trials on the first subjects in a Phase Ib/II proof-of-concept (PoC) study of V81444, an A2A antagonist which has potential applications for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Separately, the company announced that its half year results will be released on 29 July 2013.
In the UK, the FTSE 100 index rose 2.7% to 6,544.9 during the week, encouraged by Bernanke’s dovish comments and after Britain’s business confidence reached a 13-month high and as UK permanent staff placements rose at the fastest pace in more than two years. The FTSE techMARK 100 Index rallied 2.9% to 2,882.7, while the FTSE AIM 100 Index added 2.4% to 3,326.9.
US markets advanced during the week, after Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke indicated that the central bank’s policy would remain accommodative. The DJIA index rose 2.2% to 15,464.3, while the NASDAQ index rallied 3.5% to 3,600.1.
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