The Finextra50 Financial Technology Index ended last week up 2.23% to 95.36, as European stocks recovered some of their losses from earlier this month, and some strong index performers from the US continued to rise.
Major gainers
Vasco Data Security was the index's biggest riser last week, gaining a further 12.51% to finish at $31.29. The authentication token manufacturer has been a favourite with investors, as it has posted 18 consecutive profitable quarters and claims to be adding a new bank client every day. Since the inception of the index its share price has risen by 46.21%.
Computershare ended the week up 10.22%, steadily rising on the back of the previous week's financial statements to finish at $AUD10.35.The share registry operator expects earnings per share will rise 15% this year, even amid recent volatility in world sharemarkets.
In Sweden, Orc Software posted a 10.58% gain last week to end at SEK151.50 on positive investor reaction to the news it has sold its entire share of Infront, a trading application software company based in Oslo, Norway. Orc said this was in line with its strategy to further streamline its business. The sale of Infront shares will result in a realised profit of about SEK 15 million. This profit will be accounted for during the third quarter of 2007.
A number of the index's European constituents pared back falls experienced due to the region's recovery from recent jitters caused by the US sub-prime mortgage crisis. Temenos ended up 10.66% to CHf27.00; Oberthur Card Systems was up 9.82% to EUR6.26; SimCorp was up 7.91% to DKr1159.00 and Statpro up 7.71% to 103.40p
Other stocks to post significant gains in the US include Actuate (up 8.9% to $6.85) and Chordiant (up 7.7%to $14.97)
Major losers
Not many index constituents saw significant falls last week, but the Indian IT sector was home to three of them. As the broader Indian market recovered last week along with other Asian markets, the country's IT sector remained down due to marginal gains in the strength of the rupee against the dollar.
Nucleus Software finished down -7.64% to Rs363.90, Mphasis down -4.97% to Rs277.00, and 3i Infotech down 3.71% to Rs 275.00.
Elsewhere, two companies that posted net losses in their recent quarterly filings also bucked the market recovery trend. Hypercom fell by -5.24% last week to finish at $4.88, while ACI Worldwide was down -5.16% to $25.00.
Index comparison
Methodology
More information on the Finextra50 Financial Technology Index methodology and constituent stocks can be found here.