ARM Holdings increased 8.9%, on hopes that it will benefit from Apple’s iPhone 5S model, based on its A7 chip. Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank reiterated their “Buy” rating on the stock, while Morgan Stanley and Numis rated the stock as “Equal Weight” and “Reduce”, respectively.
DS Smith, up 4.4%, had its “Buy” rating reiterated by Investec and Numis. Morgan Stanley and Numis reaffirmed their “Overweight” and “Buy” ratings on AVEVA Group, up 4.9%. Meanwhile, shares of Johnson Matthey fell 1.4%, even as Deutsche Bank and Bank of America Merrill Lynch retained their “Buy” rating and target prices of 3,050p and 2,950p, respectively. JP Morgan downgraded Greene King, down 0.7%, to “Neutral” from “Overweight”, and set the target price at 880p.
Cyan Holdings rallied 19% and emerged as the top gainer on the Cambridge Index. Blinkx, down 3.1%, announced a partnership agreement with Zazoom to form a co-branded channel of original video content. Kier Group, up 2.4%, reported that its full-year revenue declined 4.2% to £1,982.8m.
Dialight fell 17.9% after announcing that full-year profit will probably miss its forecasts as a result of delays in contract awards. However the company noted that it has won one contract for Obstruction Systems and has made good progress towards qualification and award of other significant Obstruction System business.
Brady, down 12.4%, posted a pre-tax loss of £0.1m, despite announcing a 23% increase in its half-year revenues to £14.9m. Elektron Technology, down 3.4%, announced that its half-year revenue decreased to £23.7m and it posted a pre-tax loss of £2.2m. Quixant, unchanged at 92.5p, announced that its first-half revenue increased to $9.5m from $9.4m while pre-tax profit declined to $1.8m from $2.2m.
Abcam, down 0.5%, announced a 24.9% rise in its full-year revenue to £122.2m and a 19.4% rise in its pre-tax profit to £46.6m. Amino Technologies, down 1.5%, announced a partnership with Opera Software to deliver the new Amino TV App Store for its Live Home Media Centre.
Ubisense Group, down 2.6%, announced half-year revenue of £12.4m, up 3.6%, but noted that its pre-tax loss widened to £1.4m. Sphere Medical Holding, down 2.8%, announced that it has completed a study to evaluate the use of its Pelorus 1500 analyser to monitor propofol levels during paediatric spinal surgery on anaesthetised children.
In the UK, the FTSE 100 index rose 0.6%, to 6,583.8, as investors’ confidence in UK's economic recovery received a boost after data revealed a higher-than-expected drop in UK jobless claims and a fall in nation’s unemployment rate. The FTSE techMARK 100 Index rose 1.3%, to 2,992, while the FTSE AIM 100 Index advanced 2.3%, to 3,576.8.
US markets advanced during the week, amid receding geopolitical tensions, as lawmakers from Russia and Syria scrambled to reach a consensus to avoid the imminent US-led military action on Syria. The DJIA index rose 3%, to close at 15,376.1 and the NASDAQ index gained 1.7% to 3,722.2.
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