Shares of ARM Holdings edged down 0.6% as analysts at Jefferies turned bearish on the company in the medium/long term. Aveva Group, up 1.5%, announced that the group performed well in the second half of the year and consequently it expects its results for the year ended 31 March to be in line with its expectations. The company also added that it is confident for fiscal 2013.
PDX jumped 20.4% to 93.0p and emerged as the top gainer in the Cambridge Index. Phytopharm, up 11.8%, announced the completion of the recruitment into the proof of concept Phase II study in patients with Parkinson’s disease and also released positive results for its drug Cogane. HiWave Technologies (formerly NXT PLC), up 11.7%, announced the launch of a stereo Bluetooth wireless speaker reference design.
Dialight, up 10.2%, announced that it is confident to meet market expectations for the full year and maintained its positive outlook for significant growth in both sales and earnings for 2012. Among other noticeable gainers was Blinkx, which advanced 9.1% to 47.8p.
Xaar, up 1.2%, announced that trading for the first quarter was in line with the board’s expectations, with sales in the first three months up 20% YoY. Sepura, up 5.4%, expects to report full year revenues within a range of €82 million-€83 million, with profits for the year comfortably ahead of recent Euro denominated market expectations.
Ubisense Group, up 0.5%, announced that CEO, Richard Green purchased 4,326 shares at an average price of 212.5p per share from the R T Green Children’s Settlement, an entity controlled and beneficially owned by Mr Green.
CSR fell 8.2% and emerged as the largest faller in the Cambridge Index. The company announced the opening of the CSR Automotive Systems Development and Applications Centre in Ingolstadt, Southern Germany. Sagentia Group eased 6.9% after the company announced that revenue is expected to be lower than last year due to suspension of a large project with a North American medical start-up.
Brady, down 1.7%, announced that BKK AS, a Norwegian power production company, has installed its solutions. Abcam, down 1.1%, completed its tender offer for the acquisition of Epitomics International for a net consideration of $155 million. The acquisition would be funded by the issue of 14,498,923 new shares of 0.2p each. Other prominent losers included Netcall, which fell 3.6% to 23.1p.
In the UK, the FTSE 100 index closed 2.1% higher, at 5,772.2, as the IMF estimated that global economy will expand 3.5% in 2012 and 4.1% in 2013, higher than its earlier projection of 3.3% for 2012 and 4% for 2013. The FTSE techMARK 100 Index rose 0.7% to 2,312.5, while the FTSE AIM 100 Index edged up 0.1% to 3,574.1.
US markets closed mixed, as upbeat earnings from GE, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup helped offset downbeat US economic data. Nasdaq Index ended in the red as technology bellwether IBM led the sector lower after revealing weak revenue growth. The Dow Jones Index climbed 1.4% to 13,029.3, while the Nasdaq Index was down 0.4% to 3,000.5.
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Cambridge Index gains 0.9%
24 April 2012
Most of the global equity indices recorded gains last week as the IMF raised its forecasts for global economic growth and following healthy earnings releases from major US companies. The Cambridge Index rose 0.9% or 98.9 points to 10,813.9, as six of the top ten index heavyweights recorded gains.