Jefferies raised its target price on DS Smith, up 3.4%, to 475p from 460p and maintained its “Hold” rating.
AVEVA Group, up 4%, announced that it anticipates its revenues for the year 2018 to remain approximately same as the previous year. They also announced the immediate retirement of its Director, Philip Dayer. Hence, Christopher Humphrey, Non-Executive Director, will take over as Senior Independent Director while Jennifer Allerton, Non-Executive Director, has been appointed as the Chairperson of the Remuneration Committee. Finally, the company’s shareholders approved a final dividend of 27p per share.
Marshall Motor Holdings, up 6.3%, announced that the Group delivered a solid performance during the period, mainly in the first quarter, mainly driven by like-for-like revenue growth along with profits from its last year’s acquisition, Ridgeway Garages (Newbury) Limited.
Tristel, up 6%, announced that it has made an investment in an Israeli company, Mobile ODT (MODT) worth $750,000, acquiring a 3.27% equity stake in the company. Meanwhile, the company announced that it has applied for a regulatory clearance to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of its Duo chlorine dioxide disinfection foam for its newly established subsidiary in Delaware, United States. FinnCap increased its target price on the stock to 195p from 165p.
Elektron Technology, up 5.1%, in its trading update, announced that it exercised various trials and evaluations at a number of major organisations operating multiple sites in food service and retail. They also won several contracts in leisure, hospitality and food processing organisations.
Peel Hunt restated its “Buy” rating on Xaar, up 4%, with a target price of 470p.
Horizon Discovery Group, up 1.9%, announced that its Reference Standards have been used by a leading sequencing company for a companion diagnostic in oncology in a recent successful premarket approval application (PMA) filing with the FDA. Numis Securities reiterated its “Buy” rating on the stock with a target price of 262p.
Peel Hunt reaffirmed its “Buy” rating on Kier Group, up 1.3%, with a target price of 1600p.
CyanConnode Holdings, down 13.4%, announced that it has bagged a $1.1m contract from Genus Power Infrastructures Ltd to provide its IPv6-6LoWPAN based Advanced Metering Infrastructure smart metering solution of over 23,000 units for the Indian state-owned utility Uttar Gujarat Vij Company Ltd (UGVCL).
UK markets finished mostly higher in the previous week, despite a drop in the nation’s manufacturing, services and construction PMI in June. The British construction, industrial and manufacturing output contracted during the same period. The FTSE 100 index rose by 0.5% to settle at 7,350.9, while the FTSE techMARK 100 index added 0.1% to close at 4,509.5. However, the FTSE AIM 100 index fell 1% to end at 4,794.99.
US markets ended in the green last week, as the nation’s non-farm payrolls data surpassed market expectations for the month of June, while the ISM manufacturing and service sector activity recorded a strong growth. Meanwhile, the Federal Open Market Committee’s minutes showed that policymakers remained concerned over downshift in inflation data and its impact on future rate increases. The DJIA index rose 0.3% to end at 21,414.3, while the NASDAQ index gained 0.2% to close at 6,153.1.
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