Indian software vendor Mphasis was the best performer in the Finextra50 Financial Technology Index last week, while UK software house Gresham, which reported a widening in first half pre-tax losses during the week, posted the biggest fall.
Major gainers
India's Mphasis was the index's biggest gainer last week, closing up 6.1% to Rs285.35 on Friday. It pared back its decline over the two previous weeks, but is still down 13.2% since the index was benchmarked in May this year.
Factset Research Systems finished 5.59% higher at $68.55 after posting strong Q4 results. Revenues were $129.5 million, up 23.1% compared to the prior year. Operating income for the fourth quarter rose 28.2% to $42.7 million from $33.3 million in the same period of fiscal 2006. Net income was $30.7 million compared to $23.4 million a year ago. Diluted earnings per share increased to $0.60, up from $0.46 in the same period of fiscal 2006.
Cognizant rose 5.17% to $79.79, rebounding on Friday after falling on Thursday as investors continued to waver over the company's ability to counter the appreciation of the rupee, and minimise its impact on profit margins.
Other companies to rise significantly last week include Linedata Services (up 4.7% to EUR14.25), SEI Investments (4.52% to $27.28), and Advent Software (4.17% to $46.97).
Major losers
UK banking and payments software firm Gresham was the biggest loser last week, falling 9.28% to close the week at 107.50 pence. Last Monday the firm revealed H1 pre-tax losses widened to £1.5 million from £0.4 million in 2006. Revenue fell by 10.6% to £6.4 million, from £7.2 million a year earlier. Gresham announced plans to raise £2.75 million in a share placing of 2.5 million shares at a price of 110 pence each. The placing price is 6.38% below the stock's closing price of 117.5 pence per share the previous day.
Hypercom fell 8.69% to $4.52, and Chordiant Software slipped 7.04% to $13.86.
ACI Worldwide was also down 5.34% to $22.35, continuing its slide since reporting Q3 losses the week prior. It's not all bad news for the company though: analyst John Kraft of DA Davidson initiated coverage last week with a "neutral" rating, saying the company is expected to witness stable demand for its payment processing applications and is now fully compliant with regulatory filings. Kraft was also positive about its restructuring efforts to improve margin.
Other fallers include Interactive Data (down 5.11% to $28.20), and Online Resources (down 4.6% at $12.64).
Index comparison
Methodology
More information on the Finextra50 Financial Technology Index methodology and constituent stocks can be found here.