Cambridge Index drops 0.8%

The Cambridge Index fell 213.2 points or 0.8% to close at 27,979, as seven of the top ten index heavyweights posted weekly losses to their share prices.

Johnson Matthey, up 1.2%, announced in its trading update that its first-quarter sales were in line with its estimates. The group kept its guidance for the full year unchanged, with the second-half performance to be stronger than the first-half.

AVEVA Group, down 3.3%, announced in its trading update that its full-year trading outlook remains in line with the Board's expectations. The company stated that it is on track to continue future growth and strong start of the period has managed to achieve good cash generation in the first quarter, resulting in net cash of £117m as at 30 June 2018.

Scientific Digital Imaging, up 6.6%, announced in its final results that revenues advanced 35% to £14.5m, while its profit before tax rose to £1.7m from £0.9m. FinnCap raised its target price on the stock to 42p from 37p.

Elektron Technology, up 1.8%, announced that Center Parcs has planned to deploy Checkit's Real-Time Operations Management solution for critical food safety compliance procedures across its 5 locations in the UK.

Peel Hunt maintained its “Buy” rating on Quixant, down 1.1%.

Science Group, down 2.5%, announced in its interim results that revenues rose to £25.1m from £18m, while its profit before tax marginally grew to £2.4m.

CyanConnode Holdings, down 3.8%, announced the appointment of William David Johns-Powell and Heather Peacock as a Non-Executive Director and Finance Director, respectively, both with an immediate effect.

Dialight, down 3.8%, announced in its interim results that revenues dropped to £80.1m from £92.7m, while its profit before tax fell to £2.8m from £4m. The Board expects the full-year trading performance to be better towards the second half.

Netcall, down 4.3%, announced in its trading update that it expects adjusted EBITDA for the year to grow by 20% to £5.4m from £4.5m in the last year, on the back of strong order inflow and high volume of SaaS-based contracts. Meanwhile, the company successfully completed the acquisition and integration of MatsSoft, whose high productivity platforms was acknowledged in the newly published Gartner Magic Quadrant. MatsSoft renewed a contract with its largest customer for a period of four years and worth approximately £3.7m.

UK markets closed mostly higher last week, led by better-than-expected earnings from major companies. UK mortgage approvals surprisingly advanced to a nine-month high in June. British Prime Minister, Theresa May, announced that she will be taking personal control over Brexit discussions with the European Union. The FTSE 100 index advanced 0.3% to settle at 7701.3, while the FTSE AIM 100 index rose 1.2% to close at 5849.2. However, the FTSE techMARK 100 index lost 0.9% to end at 4837.8.

US markets ended mixed in the previous week, amid mixed corporate earnings from index heavyweights. The US economy expanded at its strongest pace in almost four years in Q2 2018, whereas the US Markit manufacturing PMI unexpectedly rose in July. The US consumer sentiment index dropped to a six-month low in July, while the nation’s existing home sales fell to its lowest level since January in June. The DJIA index rose 1.6% to end at 25451.1, while the NASDAQ index lost 1.1% to close at 7737.4.

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