The Finextra50 Financial Technology Index was up .97% to 85.84 as worldwide markets experienced their most stable week this year. Strong earnings and outlook statements saw Fidessa and Computershare lead the gainers, while Bravura pared back recent gains and Broadridge dipped on flat year-on-year growth for its last quarter.
Major gainers
Fidessa was the index's biggest gainer, rising 18% to 885p after the company reported rising revenue and profits for the year and a strong sales pipeline, with no signs yet of a credit crisis-inspired slowdown in spending. The vendor said revenue - including an eight-month contribution from its Latentzero unit - for the full year ending 31 December 2007 was up 43% to £135 million, compared to £94.6 million a year ago. Full year pre-tax profit rose 20% from 14.3 million to £17.1 million.
CEO Chris Aspinwall said: "We expect that some of our customers may come under pressure during 2008 as a result of the current market conditions, but we have yet to see any impact of this within our sales pipeline."
Computershare was also up on a strong earnings announcement. Its stock finished the week up 8.48% to AUD$8.57. It announced that net income rose 30% to $154.9 million in the six months to 31 December, which ahead of the $141.5 million average of three analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The share registry operator reaffirmed its annual profit growth forecast of 40%, driven partly by strong initial share sale activity in Hong Kong.
Other companies to see a significant rise last week include:
- S1, which rose 9.2% to $6.17
- Orc Software, which finished the week up 7.84% to Skr137.50
Major losersAustralian
Bravura Solutions was the index's biggest faller last week, paring back its gains over the preceding two weeks to fall 10.61% to AUD$1.60. It was reported last week that Macquarie Group has reduced its interest in Bravura Solutions from 9.1 million (6.4%) to 7.3 million shares (5.2%).
Broadridge Financial Solutions was also down last week, dropping 7.3% from the previous Friday to close the week at $20.05. It reported relatively flat earnings of $28.9 million, or $0.21 per share for the second quarter ended December 31, 2007, compared to $28.0 million or $0.20 per share for the comparable quarter of the previous fiscal year.
Other index consituent companies to see falls last week include:
- Mphasis, which fell 6.62% to Rs238.20
- Online Resources, which was down 4.68% to $9.99
Index comparison
MethodologyMore information on the Finextra50 Financial Technology Index methodology and constituent stocks can be found
here.