Credit Suisse reissued its “Outperform” rating on Johnson Matthey, down 2%, with a target price of 3900p.
Horizon Discovery Group, up 8.9%, announced that its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Darrin M Disley, will step down from his role. While the company is in search of successor for the post of CEO, Dr Ian Gilham, Chairman of the Board, will assume the role of Executive Chairman and Richard Vellacott, Chief Financial Officer and Deputy CEO, will become CEO, both for an interim period. Numis Securities reaffirmed its “Buy” rating on the stock with a target price of 300p. N+1 Singer trimmed its target price on the stock to 230p from 250p and issued a “Buy” rating.
Tristel, up 0.9%, in its interim results for the six months ended 31 December 2017, announced that revenues rose to £10.7m from £9.7m reported in the same period last year. Moreover, the company’s profit before tax slightly rose to £1.8m from £1.7m reported in the previous year. FinnCap lifted its target price on the stock to 280p from 275p and maintained a “Corporate” rating.
Sareum Holdings, unchanged at 1p, announced that Sierra Oncology will give a presentation on preclinical data demonstrating the ability of Sareum’s Chk1 inhibitor, SRA737, to synergize with niraparib, a poly ADP-ribose inhibitor used to prevent the repair of DNA damage and for cancer treatments, at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2018 being held in Chicago, USA from 14 to 18 April.
Numis Securities raised its target price on Kier Group, down 1.3%, to 1510p from 1407p and maintained its “Add” rating.
Science Group, up 1.4%, announced that it will publish its preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2017 on 28 February 2018.
Jefferies Group reaffirmed its “Buy” rating on Xaar, down 1.9%, with a target price of 500p.
Dialight, down 9.8%, announced that its full-year revenues marginally fell to £181.0m from £182.2m reported in the last year. Meanwhile, the company posted a profit before tax of £3.0m as compared to a loss of £3.3m reported in the previous year.
UK markets ended mostly lower in the previous week, weighed down by losses in financial and mining sector stocks along with dismal corporate earnings results. In economic news, the British economy grew at a slower than anticipated pace in the fourth quarter of 2017, while the nation’s ILO unemployment rate accelerated at its quickest pace in nearly five years in December. The FTSE 100 index declined 0.7% to settle at 7,244.4, while the FTSE techMARK 100 index dropped 0.4% to close at 4,409.2. Meanwhile, the FTSE AIM 100 index added 0.8% to end at 5,409.9.
US markets finished in the positive territory last week, after the US manufacturing sector growth accelerated by its fastest pace in forty months in February, while the US services PMI rose to its highest level since 2015 in the same month. In other news, minutes from the Federal Reserve’s January monetary policy meeting hinted that policymakers supported gradual increases in interest rate in the near future. The DJIA index advanced 0.4% to end at 25,309.9, while the NASDAQ index gained 1.4% to close at 7,337.4.