Index bellwether ARM Holdings rose 2.9%, as it announced that fourth quarter revenue rose to £164.2m from £137.8m, and pre-tax profit rose 16% to £80m. Full year revenue rose to £913.1m from £785m, and full year pre-tax profit advanced 20% to £276.5m. Further, the company revealed that it has a robust opportunity pipeline for licensing and a record order backlog for 2013.
DS Smith was helped by “buy” recommendations from Oriel Securities and Investec and rose by 2.1%. However, Johnson Matthey declined 2.1% as UBS and Citigroup assigned a “Neutral” rating to the stock.
Sareum Holdings rose 17.3% to emerge as the top gainer in the Cambridge Index. The company indicated that the US Patent and Trademark Office had issued a patent for one of its key drug discoveries. Blinkx, up 15.3%, announced that it was raising its own FY2013 revenue guidance to $180-185m, and confirmed that the integration of Burst and PVMG was proceeding strongly.
Phytopharm, up 8.8%, announced that it has traded in line with expectations during the period from 1 October 2012 to 5 February 2013, while also adding that it received approval from the US FDA for its clinical development plan for Cogane.
Bango, up 5%, placed 3,250,000 new ordinary shares with institutional investors at 200p per share to raise £6.5m. The company plans to use the money to increase its capacity in emerging markets, fund further business development and strengthen its balance sheet to permit alternative sources of financing.
Ubisense, up 1.2%, announced that one of its customers in the US has renewed its contract for Ubisense to provide managed services. Shares of Vernalis rose 1.1% during the week as the company received a $1.5 million milestone payment under its drug discovery collaboration with Genentech. However, Scientific Digital Imaging was unchanged at 21p, despite securing an order worth $0.12 million from a Chinese government organisation.
In the UK, the FTSE 100 index closed 1.3% lower, at 6,263.9, as continuing political uncertainty in Spain and Italy weighed on investor sentiment. Meanwhile, the Bank of England left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a record low of 0.5%, and confirmed that the asset purchase program would continue unchanged. The FTSE techMARK 100 Index added 0.1% to 2,681.4, while the FTSE AIM 100 Index climbed 0.7% to 3,339.7.
In the US, a combination of upbeat corporate earnings, an expansion in the Services sector and a narrower trade deficit helped sentiment. However, gains were capped following less than well received reports on US factory orders, nonfarm productivity and jobless claims. The Dow Jones Index fell 0.1% to 13,993, while the Nasdaq Index added 0.5% to 3,193.9.
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Cambridge Index rises 1.2%
12 February 2013
Global equities closed mixed last week, as political tensions in Italy and Spain reignited worries about the euro bloc’s ability to resolve the ongoing debt crisis. The news that the leaders of the European Union had agreed to make €34.4 billion of budget cuts over the next seven years did little to improve sentiment.The Cambridge Index rose 1.2% or 172.8 points to 14,238.8, outperforming the broader market indices.