Liberum Capital restated its “Hold” rating on Johnson Matthey, up 4.7%, with a target price of 3300.0p. Numis Securities reiterated its “Add” rating on Abcam, up 7.7%, with a target price of 912.0p. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed its “Hold” rating on the stock with a target price of 890.0p. Panmure Gordon restated its “Sell” rating on the stock with a target price of 680.0p.
Sphere Medical Holdings, up 20.4%, announced that it has received orders from six hospitals in three countries for its blood-gas analyser device, Proxima 4, after going through various assessments at 14 hospital departments. Meanwhile, the company increased the number of product distributors in continental Europe, including Eumedics Medizintechnik GmbH in Austria. Panmure Gordon restated its “Buy” rating on the stock with a target price of 15.0p. Bango, up 1.9%, announced that its Bango payment platform has been selected by Smartfren, a leading Indonesian mobile network operator, to launch one-click carrier billing payment for Google Play customers.
JPMorgan raised its target price on AVEVA Group, down 0.7%, to 1950.0p from 1750.0p and maintained its “Neutral” rating. Numis Securities reiterated its “Add” rating on the stock with a target price of 2180.0p. Xaar, down 2.5%, announced that Lily Liu has been appointed as the Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary, with immediate effect. Peel Hunt reduced its target price on Gaming Realms, down 5.1%, to 30.0p from 40.0p and maintained its “Buy” rating. Sepura, down 24.6%, announced that the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy has decided to initiate a review of its takeover by Hytera Communications Corporation Limited.
UK markets ended stronger in the last week as Britain’s manufacturing sector expanded at its fastest pace in three years in April while the services sector surprisingly rose to its four-month high in the same month. Additionally, UK’s construction PMI touched a four-month high in April, indicating stability in the housing market. The FTSE 100 index climbed 1.3% to settle at 7,297.4, while the FTSE AIM 100 index added 0.6% to close at 4,774.4. Meanwhile, the FTSE techMARK 100 index jumped 2.0% to end at 4,646.5.
US markets finished in positive territory in the previous week, led by gains in financial sector stocks. The US Federal Reserve (Fed) kept a hawkish view for the US economic growth at its latest policy meeting and stated the recent weakness in the economy as transitory. On the macro front, the nation added more number of jobs than expected in April while the unemployment rate surprisingly dropped near to its 10-year low. The DJIA index edged 0.3% up to settle at 21,0