Finextra50 up 4.25% led by ACI and Patsystems

The Finextra50 Financial Technology Index closed last week up at 87.64, as the fintech sector recovered slightly more than most global markets last week. Despite several falling stocks, such as Actuate which lost 31% of its value last week, the majority of companies saw decent rises, led by ACI Worldwide which benefited from the resolution of its most recent accounting troubles.

Major gainers
ACI Worldwide led the index's gainers last week, rising 20.94% to $16.17 after filing its delayed annual report. It had risked censure and potential de-listing from Nasdaq by taking time to re-examine its tax deductions on US federal income returns for the years ended September 30, 2004, 2005 and 2006, but concluded that previously filed financial statements will not require adjustment.

The company's share price has taken a beating over the past 12 months, with a number of delayed regulatory filings and mixed earnings results. The company will be glad to have this latest accounting saga out of the way and focus on growing its payments software business. To this end, it announced last week a partnership with Simply Retail Solutions (SRS) to combine and jointly market their retail payment suites to retail customers.

Patsystems was up 11.54% to 26.59p as it announced on Friday that ION Trading had bought a further 1.325 million shares in the company, lifting its stake to about 47.98 million shares or 27%.

Oberthur Card Systems also rose a steady 11.42% last week to close at EUR4.78, after announcing 2007 sales rose 13.7% to EUR733.4 million and predicting 2008 should be a year of sustained growth for the company.

Other companies to see significant rises last week include:

Cognizant, up 11.05% to $29.84
Temenos Group, up 10.29% to EUR26.80

Major losers
Actuate was the index's biggest faller last week, as the share lost 31.18% of its value to close at $4.26. This is despite reporting record fourth quarter and fiscal year 2007 revenues and earnings. The fall can be attributed mainly to its outlook for 2008, which it said would be flat in terms of growth.

For the fourth quarter, the provider of business intelligemnce and reporting software reported fourth-quarter adjusted income of $7.7 million, or 11 cents a share, versus analysts' consensus of 10 cents a share. Revenue was $39.2 million, up 12% from $35.1 million reported in the year-ago period, when the company also reported adjusted income of $5.6 million, or 8 cents a share.

Other companies to see significant falls last week include: