DS Smith, down 8.2%, announced in its trading update for the half year ended 31 October 2018, that it expects revenue and operating profit for the period to be slightly ahead from prior year figures, driven by volume growth in FMCG business and lower input costs. DS Smith also announced that the integration with Interstate Resources continues to be smooth and further expects completion of its proposed Europac acquisition by December 2018. Peel Hunt reconfirmed its “Buy” rating on the stock.
LPA Group, up 1.9%, announced in its trading update for the year ended 30 September 2018, that it anticipates full year results to be in line with market forecasts, with the sales witnessing record levels despite a slowdown in the CrossRail activity in the final quarter. LPA Lighting Systems received a contract worth £4m for the upgradation of lighting on London's Central and Waterloo & City lines rolling stock.
Kier Group, up 0.7%, announced that it has been offered a contract to be a part of the Highways England's £8.7bn Regional Delivery Partnership framework for Band B projects for six years that exceeds £100m, covering the north west, north east, Yorkshire and Humberside.
Greene King, up 0.5%, announced the resignation of its Chief Executive Officer, Rooney Anand, with effect from 30 April 2019. The company also stated that it has initiated the process of appointing his successor. Peel Hunt reissued its “Buy” rating on the stock.
Horizon Discovery Group. which remained unchanged at 195p, announced that it has appointed Margarita Krivitski as the Non-Executive Director with immediate effect.
Sareum Holdings, down 3.1%, announced in the third quarter 2018 results of Sierra Oncology, that it had made a significant progress in the development of SRA737 and the results of these trials are likely to be reported in the first half of 2019. Furthermore, the company stated that it continues to initiate the Phase 1b/2 trial of SRA737. Berenberg Bank reaffirmed its “Buy” rating on Frontier Developments, down 3.4%.
UK markets closed mostly lower last week, after the UK services PMI slid to a seven-month low level in October, while the nation’s visible trade deficit narrowed to a seven-month low level in September. UK gross domestic product climbed to its highest level in two-years in 3Q 2018. The British house price index advanced at its slowest pace in five years in the quarter ended October 2018. The nation’s industrial production remained flat in September. The FTSE 100 index advanced 0.2% to settle at 7105.3, while the FTSE AIM 100 index fell 0.1% to close at 5270.9. Meanwhile, the FTSE techMARK 100 index lost 0.3% to end at 4385.3.
US markets ended in the green in the previous week, following US consumer credit rising in September, while the nation’s producer price advanced by the most in six-years in October. The US services PMI climbed in October. US consumer sentiment index eased in November the nation’s mortgage applications eased in the week ended 02 November 2018. The DJIA index rose 2.8% to end at 25989.3, while the NASDAQ index gained 0.7% to close at 7406.9.