Finextra50 starts year with record low

Led by big falls for Fundtech and ACI Worldwide, the Finextra50 Financial Technology Index fell 4.31% by the end of the year's first week, reaching 91.24. Few companies saw any gains in a depressed start for most markets worldwide, but Gresham Computing did see a bounce back after a recent slump, while FirstSource and Nucleus Software in India also rose.

Major gainers
UK-based supplier of banking and payments software Gresham Computing was last week's biggest gainer. It ended the first week of the year up 28.83% to 71.50p after releasing a positive trading update. It says its Ebita loss for H2 is expected to be roughly half that incurred in the first six months of the year.

The vendor said in September that it would raise £2.75 million in a share placing after it reported falling revenue and widening pre-tax losses of £1.5 million in the first half of the year, compared to pre-tax losses of £0.4 million for H1 2006.

Indian business process outsourcing (BPO) specialist Firstsource closed Friday up 5.91% to Rs80.70. The company, formerly known as ICICI OneSource before listing in January last year, is trading well against some of its larger Indian peers, reportedly due in part to a strong domestic business and diverse customer base that spans Ireland, Argentina, and the Philippines as well as the US.

Nucleus Software, an Indian provider of lending software, also outperformed the flat Indian markets last week, finishing up 4.32% to Rs381.40. ICICI Securities is among firms positive on the stock, saying in a recent report that it's maintaining a buy rating as the company's product pipeline remain strong in Middle East, Africa and India for various new opportunities in the areas of captive auto financing, dealer financing, collateral insurance management, sales lead management, business partner incentives and payment management.

Major losers
The majority of index constituents fell last week, particulary those listed in the US, but the largest fall was seen by payments software firm Fundtech which closed Friday down 17.66% to $11.00 amid heavy trading volume.

ACI Worldwide continued its recent form with a 14.5% drop last week to close at $16.28. The firm is being hurt by its delay in filing its end-of-year with Nasdaq.
Other firms to see significant falls include: