Cambridge Index falls 0.2%

The Cambridge Index fell 0.2% or 28.5 points, to end at 17,470.1, as three of the top five heavyweights posted losses.

Johnson Matthey fell 1.3% during the week as the company was assigned a “Hold” rating by Numis, with a price target of 3,382p. Greene King fell 2.5%, despite mostly positive broker recommendations.

AVEVA Group, down 0.9%, had its rating upgraded to “Buy” from “Add”. Meanwhile, ARM Holdings traded unchanged at 1,018p and DS Smith rose 2.6%. The latter posted a 25% rise in its interim half year revenue to £2,081m and a 52% increase in its pre-tax profit to £85m. Citigroup, Prime Markets and Investec recommended the stock as “Buy”, while Goodbody and Numis advised a “Hold”.

Shares in Tristel rose 15.5% during the week with the strength being attributed to large buying activity. Frontier Developments, up 8.5% announced that its Chairman, David Gammon and Non-Executive Director, Jonathan Milner have purchased 5,000 and 90,000 shares in the company at 99p and 99.4p per share, respectively.

Sphere Medical Holding, up 7.3%, announced positive results in a study using its ‘Pelorus 1500 analyser’. Sareum Holdings, up 3.4%, announced that it has signed a co-development agreement with Hebei Medical University Biomedical Engineering Center (HMUBEC), to advance its Aurora+FLT3 cancer programme.

Ubisense Group, up 2.4%, announced plans to acquire Geoplan Interworks K.K., for ¥564.7m (£3.4m). CSR up 0.7%, launched a new CSR1012 Bluetooth platform, designed for developers looking to create low-power wearable accessories. The company also announced the appointment of Walker Boyd as a Non-Executive Director with immediate effect.

Brady rose 0.3% as the company appointed Martin Thorneycroft as Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary with effect from 2 January 2014.

Cambridge Cognition Holdings fell 22.4% amid rumours of selling activity. Cyan Holdings fell 9.5%, as it revealed plans to raise about £1.1 million, by way of a share placement of 733,333,333 shares at 0.15p each.

Blinkx, down 1.1%, announced plans to acquire Rhythm NewMedia for $65m. Blinkx is to pay $29.5m through its cash balances and the remainder by placing 20m new shares to new and existing institutional shareholders at 195p per share.

In the UK, the FTSE 100 index fell 1.5%, to 6,552, as stimulus reduction concerns in the US outweighed optimistic UK manufacturing PMI and an upward revision in the nation’s 2013 and 2014 economic growth. The FTSE techMARK 100 Index lost 0.4%, to 3,038.1, and the FTSE AIM 100 Index declined 0.6%, to 3,733.9.

US markets ended mostly lower during the week, as upbeat US economic data spurred speculation that the Fed would soon curb its QE measures. The DJIA lost 0.4%, to close at 16,020.2, while the NASDAQ added 0.1%, to settle at 4,062.5.

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