Johnson Matthey, up 3.0%, announced that it is building a gigafactory worth £80m in Royston, UK, to scale up the production of hydrogen fuel cell components.
Abcam, up 3.7%, in its trading update, announced that it expects to report total revenues of approximately £185m for the period, reflecting 19.0% growth at constant exchange rates. Abcam would release its results for the six-month period on 12 September 2022. Darktrace, up 12.3%, in its trading update, announced that it continued to deliver robust sales performance in its 4Q 2022, indicating annual growth of around 32.0%.
Cambridge Cognition, up 21.9%, in its trading update, announced that it witnessed a considerable growth in revenues to £5.9m in the first half of 2022, which is up 31.0% on 1H 2021 (1H 2021: £4.5m). The company would release its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2022 on 20 September 2022.
CyanConnode, up 10.6%, in its trading update, announced that it has delivered a turnover of £9.3m (FY2021: £6.4m), ahead of market expectations. SDI Group, up 8.3%, in its final results, announced that its revenues rose to £49.66m from £35.08m recorded in the previous year.
Kier Group, up 4.1%, in its trading update, announced that it expects annual results to be in-line with the management’s expectations. The company would release its full year 2022 results on 15 September 2022.
Tristel, up 3.6%, in its trading update, announced that revenue and adjusted profit before tax for the year from the continuing operations would be in line with consensus forecasts of £28.4m and £4.5m, respectively.
1Spatial, up 3.2%, announced that it has signed a five-year contract with a major European aerospace company following a competitive tender.
Science Group, down 0.3%, today, in its interim results, announced that revenues rose to £44.78m from £40.66m recorded in the same period previous year. Feedback, unchanged at 0.6p, announced that as part of its strategy to move the company's operating model away from low margin legacy PACS (picture archiving and communication system) contracts, it is no longer providing PACS services for Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (Trust).
Netcall, unchanged at 87.5p, in its trading update, announced that it expects annual results to be ahead of market expectations, following a strong trading performance with good demand across its product portfolio.
UK markets ended higher last week. On the data front, UK’s inflation accelerated to a new 40-year high in June, driven by rising food and energy prices and further deepening the country’s cost-of-living crisis. Additionally, the nation’s retail sales declined for a second consecutive month in June, as consumers cut back on spending due to surging inflation. Meanwhile, UK’s consumer confidence remained unchanged at a 48-year low in July, while the nation’s unemployment rate remained steady in the three months to May. The FTSE 100 index advanced 1.6% to settle at 7,276.4, while the FTSE AIM 100 index rose 4.3% to close at 4,376.4. Also, the FTSE techMARK 100 index gained 3.9% to end at 5,994.0.
US markets ended higher in the previous week, following positive corporate earnings results. On the macro front, the US housing starts declined to a nine-month low in June, while building permits fell in the same month, amid surging mortgage rates. Additionally, the US existing home sales dropped to a 2-year low in June, as house prices hit a new record high, while the nation’s homebuilder confidence plunged to a two-year low in July. Moreover, the US weekly jobless claims rose to an eight-month high in the week ended 15 July 2022, as more companies announced job cuts. The DJIA index rose 2.0% to end at 31,899.3, while the NASDAQ index gained 3.3% to close at 11,834.1.
