Last week saw steady gains among the majority of Finextra50 stocks as the index rose 1.87% to 101.67. The recovery of European markets after the previous week's drop contributed to the rise. Simcorp, Temenos and Cognizant saw the biggest gains while shares in Microgen and Fidessa fell. Comparison of the Finextra50 index performance since the start of May against key global indices shows the financial technology sector outperforming the S&P1200 Global Financial Sector index and matching the FTSE 100 and FTSE Euro 100.
Major gainers
Danish company Simcorp ended up 7.3% to DKr1,332, in a week that saw Paris-based SCOR, one of the largest reinsurance groups worldwide, announce it had selected SimCorp Dimension as its future strategic platform for domestic and international asset management activities. The stock is edging back towards its all time high of DKr1,360, recorded in early January, amid positive reaction to its decision in late May to focus purely on the asset management space by selling off its treasury system business.
Temenos rose 6.4% last week to close at CHF28.8, recovering from the Europe-wide dip in the markets last week to record an all-time high level of CHF29 during the week.
Offshore outsourcing specialist Cognizant ended the week up 4.5% to $79.02. Citigroup analyst Ashwin Shirvaikar was reported as maintaining a "Buy" rating on shares, saying the company, which has major offshoring centres in India, is offsetting a negative currency impact. Currency concerns aside, the company's strong fundamentals and analyst consensus EPS growth rate of 32% mean it is currently a favourite of US stock tipsters.
Other gainers include: Diebold, which ended up 4.2% to $51.26 in a week that it launched a new entry-level ATM called CashSpot; and UK trading system vendor Patsystems and German insurance systems house FJH, closed up 7% and 6% respectively as European markets recovered from the previous week's fall.
Major losers
Only two companies in the index recorded a drop of greater than two percent. Both were UK companies bucking the trend of European recovery.
IT services firm Microgen ended the week down 4.2% to 48p, as the markets responded negatively to its decision to increase its offer for securities software vendor Trace Group to 180 pence per share. The counter-offer was the latest in a bidding war involving management buy-out vehicle Tulip Holdings, which had previously bid 156 pence-per-share.
Fidessa also closed down 4.2% to 960p.
Index comparison
Movements in the Finextra50 have broadly tracked other benchmark indices over the past six weeks. This is something we plan to track on an ongoing basis, comparing our index to major US, UK and European market indicators, as well as technology and financial sector indices.
Methodology
For more information on the Finextra50 Financial Technology Index methodology and constituent stocks, click here.