ARM Holdings, down 3.5%, announced that CEO, Warren East sold 714,820 shares of the company at an average selling price of €6.78 per share in a deal worth €4.844 million.
Brady, up 0.6%, announced that it has completed the acquisition of Navita Systems AS, for a total consideration of CHF1.8 million, including CHF0.4 million deferred consideration. Separately, the company announced that it intends to raise £18 million (before expenses) by way of a conditional placing of 23,376,694 new ordinary shares at a price of 77p per share to fund the cash consideration payable for the acquisition.
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Vernalis surged 31.2%, emerging as top gainer in the Cambridge Index, after the company announced that it has entered into a licensing agreement with Tris Pharma Inc., to develop up to six novel formulations of existing products sold in the US prescription cough and cold market. Vernalis added that it would raise about £65.9 million, net of expenses.
Bango, up 21.9%, announced that it has signed an agreement with Facebook to provide payment services. Separately, the company announced that it has issued and allotted 65,964 new ordinary shares of 20p each following exercise of employee options.
Dialight, up 5.2%, announced the launch of its new 17,000-lumen, 170W DuroSite(R) LED High Bay luminaire, designed to deliver superior lighting quality and clarity in a wide range of industrial lighting applications. Other prominent gainers were ANT and Sepura, which rose 17.3% and 5.5% respectively.
DS Smith fell 26.0% and emerged as the top loser in the Cambridge Index, as the company’s rights issue came to effect.
Other noticeable losers were PDX (Pursuit Dynamics), Phytopharm, Cyan Holdings and HiWave Technologies (formerly NXT), all down between 3.6% and 9.9%. LPA Group remained unchanged at 49.0p. The company announced that it has issued 10,000 new ordinary shares of 10p each. Following the issue of equity, the issued share capital of the group would comprise 11,608,229 ordinary shares of 10p each.
In the UK, the FTSE 100 index closed 0.8% lower at 5,852.4, amid fears that Greek lawmakers would fail to negotiate on an agreement on a new round of austerity measures, increasing concerns about the Eurozone debt crisis.
On the economic front, UK retail sales fell 0.3% in January and China warned that its industrial-output growth might slow down in the first quarter. The FTSE techMARK 100 Index fell 0.2% to 2,233.3, while the FTSE AIM 100 Index added 2.1% to 3,673.1.
US markets closed lower, on continued uncertainty over the Greek debt deal and disappointing earnings from US corporates. Stock also fell after a report indicated that US consumer confidence declined more than expected in February. The Dow Jones Index fell 0.5% to 12,801.2, while the Nasdaq Index lost 0.1% to 2,903.9.
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