ARM Holdings fell 3.5%, after the company announced that its CEO, Warren East sold 350,000 shares at a price of 574.545p per share. CSR, down 3.0%, announced that it purchased 180,000 and 220,000 ordinary shares at 247.9p and 251.6p per share respectively.
Brady jumped 9.8% to emerge as the top gainer in the Cambridge Index. Ubisense Group added 4.3% after the company announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with ATS Global to deploy advanced industrial and process automation solutions.
Other prominent gainers were Sagentia Group, DS Smith and Sepura, all up between 1.6% and 6.3%. Dialight, up 0.2%, announced that full year revenues rose 14.4% to £113.5 million and profit before tax widened 26% to £14.3 million.
LPA rose 1.0% after the company announced that its lighting subsidiary, LPA Excil Electronics, has bagged an order worth £0.6 million from Siemens to supply LumiMatrix Chip LED light engine. The company, in its trading update, also announced that the group has continued to make progress and reported that orders and sales are ahead of the first four months in the last financial year.
ANT remained unchanged at 24.5p. The company, in its final results for the year ended 31 December 2011, announced that revenues rose 2% to £4.5 million from £4.3 million and loss before tax narrowed to £0.3 million from £0.6 million recorded in the same period a year ago.
Sareum Holdings dropped 21.0% to be the largest faller in the Index. The company’s half year pre-tax loss widened to £0.36 million from £0.28 million. Separately, the company announced positive results from several of its cancer and auto-immune disease research programmes. Bango, down 13.6%, announced that it expects total loss after tax to be approximately £0.8 million for the full year ending 31 March 2012 compared to a loss of £0.70 million for FY2011.
Netcall, down 1.6%, announced that half year revenues increased 14% to £7.31 million and profit before after tax widened to £0.92 million from £0.01 million recorded in the same period a year ago. Other noticeable losers were Vernalis, Kier Group and Blinkx, all down between 5.4% and 7.6%.
In the UK, the FTSE 100 index closed 0.4% lower at 5,911.1, as continuing concerns over the European debt crisis overshadowed upbeat UK retail sales and manufacturing data. Spanish government’s comments indicating that it would miss its previously set budget deficit target further pressured stocks. The FTSE techMARK 100 Index rose 0.5% to 2,310.1, while the FTSE AIM 100 Index fell 0.5% to 3,829.1.
US markets closed higher, as positive US economic data and corporate earnings reports boosted market sentiment. However gains were limited after the US Federal Reserve Chairman, in his Congressional testimony, gave no indication of further stimulus measures to support the US economy. The Dow Jones Index rose marginally to 12,977.6, while the Nasdaq Index gained 0.4% to 2,976.2.