Frontier Developments, down 2%, announced the expansion for its ultimate zoo simulation, Planet Zoo, where players would be transported to wild and rugged landscapes with the Planet Zoo: North America Animal Pack, which would go live from 4 October 2021 for a suggested retail price of £7.99.
Cambridge Cognition, up 2.7%, in its interim results, announced that revenues rose to £4.50m from £3.01m recorded in the same period previous year.
SDI Group, up 1.7%, in its trading update, announced that it expects its full year results to be in line with market expectations.
Kier Group, up 0.8%, announced that it has been selected by Thames Water to deliver a £66m design and construction project at Mogden Sewage Treatment Works (STW) in Isleworth.
Quixant, up 0.3%, its interim results, announced that revenues climbed to $36.5m from $27.9m recorded in the same period previous year. The Group returned $1.8m (H1 2020: nil) to shareholders in the form of a full year dividend for the 2020 financial year.
Feedback, down 16.7%, announced that it has officially launched Bleepa Box, a specialist tool to enable image transfer from remote settings to the Bleepa platform.
Oracle Power, down 2.9%, in its interim results, announced that loss before tax narrowed to £0.30m from £0.36m recorded in the same period of the previous year.
Tristel, down 1.6%, announced that its preliminary results for the year ended 30 June 2021 would be released on 18 October 2021.
1Spatial, unchanged at 41p, today, announced that it has won a five-year contract in partnership with a consortium, to deliver a significant multi-year digital transformation programme for a department of the UK Government.
UK markets ended mostly higher last week, as dovish statement from the Bank of England (BoE) eased fears of a sooner-than-expected tapering. On the data front, UK’s, both, manufacturing and services PMIs declined in September, amid staff shortages and building materials constraints. Additionally, the nation’s consumer confidence index dropped to a 5-month low in September, amid fears over cost-of-living crisis.
Separately, the BoE kept its key interest rate unchanged at 0.1% and maintained its bond purchase pace at £895b ($1.22t). Meanwhile, the central bank warned that UK’s inflation was likely to climb “slightly above 4%” this year. Further, the BoE downgraded its growth outlook for the third quarter of 2021. The FTSE 100 index advanced 1.3% to settle at 7051.5, while the FTSE techMARK 100 index gained 0.2% to end at 7442.1. Meanwhile, the FTSE AIM 100 index fell 0.5% to close at 6254.5.
US markets ended higher in the previous week, after the US Federal Reserve (Fed) indicated that it would raise interest rates as early as next year. On the macro front, US housing starts climbed more than expected in August, supported by multifamily projects, while building permits rose in the same month. Also, the nation’s new home sales unexpectedly rose for a second straight month in August. Meanwhile, the US jobless claims climbed for a second straight week in the week ended 17 September 2021, showing a reflecting a disrupted labour market recovery, while existing home sales declined more than expected in August, amid a tight supply of materials. The US Fed left its key interest rate unchanged at 0.25% and hinted that it would start reducing its monthly bond purchases as soon as November and complete the process by mid-2022. Meanwhile, the Fed downwardly revised its GDP growth forecasts for 2021 to 5.9% from 7.0%. The DJIA index rose 0.6% to end at 34798.0, while the NASDAQ index marginally rose to close at 15047.7.