European share prices fell again last week, weighed down by banking stocks, while the US markets were down by less than one percent. The Finextra50 closed down 1.48%, with small falls across many index constituents offset by some impressive gains from Chordiant Software, EDB Business Partner and Factset Research.
Major gainersCustomer experience management specialist
Chordiant Software posted the biggest gains of the week, rising 8.34% to $15.34 -- a price it hasn’t seen since April 2002. The rise came amid heavy trading volumes as technical traders piled in, noting the stock is on a strong long-term up-trend since reporting record revenues for Q2.
EDB Business Partner ended the week up 6.73% to NKr55.75, moving against the market in Oslo, which was dragged down by weakness in the energy sector. The Norwegian IT services and outsourcing provider announced earlier in June that it had reached an agreement regarding acquisition of 60% of the shares in IT firm Infopulse Ukraine for $6 million as part of its international expansion plans. EDB has closed the due dilligence process and entered into a final agreement and now awaits a final approval from Ukrainian Competition Authority, which it expects in Q3 2007.
The company also recently extended its IT contracts with Verdibanken and Handelsbanken in Norway.
Factset Research ended the week up 5.29% to $66.92 after reaching a 52-week high of $70.62 on Tuesday. The provider of financial data and investment research software posted better than expected third quarter earnings, which it attributed to subscription, workstation, and client growth.
Subscriptions increased 22.3%, while net income for its third quarter, which ended May 31, rose to $28.6 million, or 56 cents a share, from 21 million, or 41 cents a share in the corresponding period a year earlier. Revenue growth increased to 21.5% from 20% in the second quarter.
Other gainers include
GL Trade, which ended the week at EUR39.59, an increase of 4.27%, and
i-Flex, which continued its upward trend, gaining 2.94% to Rs2,522.
Major losersShares in online banking and bill payments provider
Online Resources fell sharply at the end of last week, closing at $10.6, down 7.07% on the previous week.
It has been a busy week for
Interactive Data as it announced a new desktop product Market-Q, the availability of its financial tools on Salesforce.com, and that TradingScreen has signed up to its DirectPlus managed low latency direct exchange data service. Despite these positive announcements, the company’s shares fell 5.79% for the week, to end at $27.1.
Fidessa fell 5.49% to 910p in a week in which it was sharing an exhibition booth with recent acquisition Latent Zero at the SIFMA securities industry technology show in New York.
Other companies to see a fall in their share price last week include:
Vasco Data Security, which closed down 5.24% to $21.4;
Actuate, which fell 4.78% to $6.06; and
Choicepoint, down 4.12% to $41.21.
Index comparison
Methodology
For more information on the Finextra50 Financial Technology Index methodology and constituent stocks, click here.