DS Smith, up 2.8%, announced that it has launched an innovative online retail packing solution for Funzy, a company specialising in modular play sofas for children. The new packaging is designed to offer protection during product transportation and storage.
Dialight, up 10.2%, announced that its annual general meeting (AGM) would be held on 23 September 2024 at 9.30am at Investec, 30 Gresham Street, London EC2V 7QP.
Cambridge Cognition, up 5.8%, in its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2024, announced that revenues dropped to £5.60m from £6.04m recorded in the same period of the previous year. Loss before tax narrowed to £1.13m from £3.42m. Its cash balances stood at £3.40m as of 30 June 2024 (31 December 2023 £3.2m).
Oracle Power, unchanged at 0.02p, announced a site visit update in respect of its Northern Zone Intrusive Hosted Gold Project in Western Australia. Its partner, Riversgold continues to make good progress and is nearing fulfilment of it’s earn-in expenditure obligations at the Northern Zone Project, with the forthcoming assay results from infill drilling expected to expand this large porphyry system further. Separately, today, the company announced that it has received further assay results from the recently completed 1,903m Aircore (AC) drilling campaign at the Northern Zone Intrusive Hosted Gold Project.
UK markets ended mostly higher last week, led by gains in precious metals and retail sector stocks. On the data front, the UK manufacturing PMI rose to its highest level since June 2022 in August, while the nation’s services PMI climbed to a 4-month high in August. Meanwhile, the UK GfK consumer confidence index unexpectedly remained unchanged in August, while the nation’s public sector net borrowing deficit narrowed less than expected in July. The FTSE 100 index advanced 0.2% to settle at 8,327.8, while the FTSE AIM 100 index rose 0.3% to close at 3,743.3. Meanwhile, the FTSE techMARK 100 index lost 0.8% to end at 6,893.9.
US markets ended higher in the previous week, following dovish comments from US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. On the macro front, the US services PMI climbed more than anticipated in August. Moreover, the US existing home sales rose for the first time in five months in July, while the nation’s new home sales rose to its highest level in more than a year in July, amid a decline in mortgage rates. Meanwhile, the US manufacturing PMI fell to an 8-month low in August, while the nation’s weekly initial jobless claims advanced more than expected in the week ended 16 August 2024. Separately, the US FOMC minutes indicated that the officials are willing to reduce borrowing costs in September. The DJIA index rose 1.3% to end at 41,175.1, while the NASDAQ index gained 1.4% to close at 17,877.8.
