Liberum Capital restated its “Hold” rating on Johnson Matthey, up 4.3%, with a target price 3400p. Deutsche Bank reissued its “Buy” rating on the stock.
DS Smith, up 2.9%, in its trading update for the year ended 30 April 2017, announced that the trading performance remained in line with its anticipations while the volume growth was positive. Moreover, it expects to achieve all its five-medium term financial targets. The stock received positive ratings from various brokers.
Peel Hunt reaffirmed its “Buy” rating on Kier Group, up 1.8%, with a target price of 1600p. Beaufort Securities reissued its “Buy” rating on the stock.
Sepura, up 38.6%, announced that it has received a confirmation from the Spanish competition authority, National Markets and Competition Commission, with respect to the competition approval sought by Hytera Communications Corporation Limited, that the process of reviewing the transaction in Spain has been terminated as the transaction did not meet the thresholds for notification.
N+1 Singer reaffirmed its “Corporate” rating on 1Spatial, up 10.0%. FinnCap reiterated its “Corporate” rating on Netcall, up 4.5%, with a target price of 70p. Barclays reaffirmed its “Equal Weight” rating on AVEVA Group, up 4.5%, with a target price of 1450p.
LPA Group, up 0.7%, announced that it has completed the sale of its former lighting factory in Normanton, in West Yorkshire and has received the proceeds of £0.53m, realising an exceptional gain of nearly £0.3m. Further, the company stated that it is continuously progressing at a pace with strong orders of £14.8m and sales of £10.8m recorded in the first half of the year.
FinnCap raised its target price to 130p from 115p on Cambridge Cognition Holdings, down 0.9%, and maintained its “Corporate” rating.
Gaming Realms, down 2.5%, in its final results for the year ended 31 December 2016, announced that revenues surged to £34.0m from £21.2m reported in the last year. Its loss before tax narrowed to £7.0m from £7.8m reported in the previous year. The basic and diluted loss per share fell to 2.55p from 3.45p in the prior year. The company stated that it is targeting a full year profitability for 2017. Peel Hunt reduced its target price on the stock to 30p from 40p and maintained its “Buy” rating.
N+1 Singer reissued its “Buy” rating on RhythmOne, down 5.3%, with a target price of 65p. Vernalis, down 10.2%, announced that it has achieved two research milestones and one clinical milestone in its oncology drug discovery collaboration with Servier, which generates a total payment of €2.0m.
UK markets finished higher in the previous week, led by gains in banking sector shares and upbeat corporate earnings releases. On the macro front, retail sales volumes in the UK rose by its fastest pace since September 2015 in April. Meanwhile, Britain’s economic growth slowed to its weakest pace in a year in the first quarter, due to rising inflation. The FTSE 100 index gained 1.3% to settle at 7,203.9, while the FTSE techMARK 100 index advanced 2.4% to close at 4,554.9. Moreover, the FTSE AIM 100 index climbed 2.4% to end at 4,747.2.
US markets ended stronger in the last week, after the US Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, and National Economic Council Director, Gary Cohn, released a summary of the US President Donald Trump’s tax-reform plan. On the data front, the US durable goods orders rose less than anticipated in March while the US annualised GDP advanced less than expected in Q1 2017. The DJIA index rose 1.9% to finish at 20,940.5, while the NASDAQ index jumped 2.3% to close at 6,047.6.
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