Cambridge Index rises 2.3%

The Cambridge Index rose 2.3% or 417.5 points, to end at 18,554.3, following healthy gains in all of the top five index heavyweights.

Shares of ARM Holdings climbed 3.6% during the week, lifted by optimism that the company’s earnings would be boosted after its customer Apple confirmed last Sunday that it had won a contract  with China Mobile to sell the iPhone in the highly lucrative Chinese market. Shares of Johnson Matthey increased 1.1%. The company had its “Buy” rating retained by Deutsche Bank. Deutsche Bank also maintained the target price on the stock at 3,650p. Other heavyweights, DS Smith, Greene King and AVEVA Group also saw an increase in their share prices.

Sareum Holdings rose 16% during the week. Meanwhile, Cyan Holdings remained unchanged at 0.2p. The company noted that it had granted options of 76,560,756 new ordinary shares to John Cronin, its Executive Chairman, at an exercise price of 0.3p per share, and options of 42,006,335 new ordinary shares to Simon Smith, its Chief Financial Officer, at an exercise price of 0.3p per share, under its EMI Share Option Scheme. Additionally, the company noted that a total of 173,329,478 options, exercisable at 0.3p per share, were issued to other Cyan staff members that represented about 5.09% of the company’s current issued share capital.

Shares of Netcall fell 3.4% during the week.  It was one of the few companies which ended the week with a lower share price.

In the UK, the FTSE 100 index advanced 2.2%, to 6,750.9, as data revealed that the number of mortgage approvals in the UK climbed to a 47-month high in November. However, overall trading volume remained light as markets were closed over the Christmas holiday. The FTSE techMARK 100 Index gained 2.2%, to 3,205.2, while the FTSE AIM 100 Index rose 2.1%, to 3,833.

US markets finished higher during the holiday-shortened week, as upbeat macroeconomic data from the US fuelled optimism that the nation’s economic growth was strengthening. Further, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) announced that it expects the US economic growth to be better than initially though and this added to investor’s optimism. The DJIA gained 1.6%, to close at 16,478.4, and the NASDAQ rose 1.3%, to settle at 4,156.6.


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