ARM Holdings slipped 5.7% after Sanford C. Bernstein cautioned investors that the company’s valuation may suffer in the second half. The company posted a 26.0% increase in its second quarter revenue to £171.2m, while pre-tax profit climbed 30.0% to £86.6 million.
Greene King, down 0.1%, was assigned an “Overweight” rating by HSBC. AVEVA Group, down 4.4%, was rated “Overweight” by Morgan Stanley. However, Johnson Matthey rose 0.6%. The company announced that its first-quarter sales, excluding precious metals, were up 13.0% to £745m, while underlying pre-tax profit was up 8.0% to £106.0m.
Scientific Digital Imaging rallied 33.3% and emerged as the top gainer in the Cambridge index. The company posted a 6.9% increase in its full-year revenue to £7.7m, while operating profit more than tripled to £0.28m. Tristel, up 26.8%, announced that it expects to post a 40.0% increase in its second-half revenues and an adjusted pre-tax profit of no less than £0.9m. Cyan Holdings, up 14.6%, entered into a strategic partnership with Ilumatic S/A to collaborate in the development, supply and delivery of CyLux smart lighting solution within Brazil.
Abcam, up 2.6%, stated that it might post a record 25% revenue growth for the year ended 30 June 2013 and report adjusted profit before tax slightly ahead of the market consensus. Blinkx, up 0.4%, unveiled a beta version of its new ‘blinkx VideoAdvantage’ platform.
Dialight, up 5.7%, posted a 12.8% increase in its half-year revenue to £59.9m, while pre-tax profit declined 41.0% to £4.9m. Sagentia Group, up 1.5%, announced that its half year revenue increased 36.1% to £14.5m and pre-tax profit increased 49.6% to £2.7m. Sepura, up 6.2%, revealed the acquisition of applications developer, Portalify OY, for an initial cash consideration of €1.0m.
Sphere Medical Holding declined 10.8%, and was the largest falling component of the Cambridge Index this week. Shares of Brady fell 1.3%. The company achieved a 23.0% revenue growth in the first six months of 2013. CSR, down 3.7%, announced that its second-quarter revenue declined 1.5% to $262.5m.
In the UK, the FTSE 100 index fell 1.1% to 6,554.8 during the week, as downbeat UK corporate earnings reports pinned down investors’ sentiment. Meanwhile, UK’s preliminary 2Q GDP QoQ growth came in at 0.6%. The FTSE techMARK 100 Index fell 0.7% to 2,868.1, while the FTSE AIM 100 Index declined 0.4% to 3,316.4.
US markets advanced during the week, as investor sentiment was buoyed following upbeat US manufacturing PMI and better-than-expected new home sales data. However, some other dismal economic updates, mixed corporate earnings and lack of clarity over future Fed asset purchases kept the gains in check. The DJIA index rose 0.1% to 15,558.8, while the NASDAQ index added 0.7% to 3,613.2.
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