The Finextra50 Financial Technology Index closed last week higher at 84.06, and despite the decline in Europe's markets last week, it was the index's Indian fintech stocks that took the biggest beating, led by i-Flex, which fell 18.41%
Major gainers
Vasco Data Security was the index's biggest gainer last week, rising 10.62% to close at $19.37. The security solutions company's shares have been on a steady decline since the start of the year, reaching as low as $16.99 on Wednesday after starting the year at $27.92. But sentiment picked up at the end of last week amid heavier trading.
Total System Services (Tsys)ended the week up 9.94% to $22.24 after saying it expects its profit and revenue to grow in 2008 as it expands internationally during its first year as an independent company after spinning off from Synovus Financial on 31 December.
The electronic-payment processing company expects earnings per share and revenue to grow 7% to 9% in 2008. It fourth quarter revenue and profits were down, however, due in part to one-time costs of 11 cents per share associated with the spin off. Its Q4 earnings fell 47.5% to $45.7 million, or 23 cents per share, from $87.1 million, or 44 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 9% to $458.5 million from $503.9 million.
Factset Research Systems 8.31% 56.32 after announcing a $125 million extension to its share repurchase programme and being named in Fortune magazine's best 100 companies to work for.
Other companies to see significant increases include:
- Temenos Group, up 8.97% to Chf24.30
- Metavante, up 8.18% to $21.68
- SimCorp, up 8.11% to Dkr893.00
Major losersThe five biggest losers in the Finextra50 last week were all Indian fintech companies. Indian markets had a turbulent week, amid spreading fears that the US economy, a key market for Indian exports and outsourcing contracts, will shrink this year.
The 30-company benchmark index of the Bombay Stock Exchange, the Sensex, saw its second-biggest ever percentage fall on Monday, dropping 7.4% and bringing trading to a halt for half an hour. Despite a recovery at the end of the week the Sensex index finished the week down 3.4%, while the rival National Stock Exchange's S&P Nifty ended down 11.4%
IT firms, and particularly those with heavy exposure to the financial services industry, fell more than the benchmark indexes, driven mainly by poor quarterly profit figures.
i-flex saw the index's biggest drop last week, falling 18.41% to Rs1130.00, as the wider market falls were compounded by the company reporting a 3.6% year-on-year fall in consolidated net profit for fiscal Q3. It claims this was due partly to an increase in foreign exchange losses and tax provisions. The company gets about 32% of its revenue from the US and about 34% from Europe.
In better news for the company, consolidated revenue rose 11.3% year-on-year to Rs6.2 billion from Rs5.57 billion, as it added 14 new clients in the period.
Polaris Software Lab also posted results last week, and as a result its shares fell 14.32% to Rs91.85. It reported a profit after tax of Rs191.18 million for the quarter ended 31 December, down 40% on Rs322.86 million for the same quarter in 2006. Total income for the quarter was up 2% on the previous year at Rs 2,836.46 million.
Nucleus Software was down 10% last week to Rs288.50, as it too posted a decline in quarterly net profit - a fall of 5.95% to Rs 100.33 million for the quarter ended December.
Other Indian fintech firms to see significant falls were:
- Firstsource, down 13.67% to Rs55.25
- Mphasis, down 10.52% to Rs242.50
Outside of India, there weren't many significant falls last week, barring
Misys, which ended the week down 6.47% to 169.75p (despite announcing a revenue rise of 3% and operating profit jump of 27% in the six months to 30 November 2007) and
ORC Software, which was down 5.11% to Skr130.00.
Index comparison
MethodologyMore information on the Finextra50 Financial Technology Index methodology and constituent stocks can be found
here.