The Finextra50 Financial Technology Index ended Friday up 3.5% in a good week all-round for most global markets. GlobeOp and Fair Isaac were among the gainers, while expectations of a weaker Q2 dragged Chordiant lower.
As the Finextra50 moved up to 86.8 last weekGlobeOp was the biggest gainer, rising 11.65% to 208.5p. Its recent upswing began when its first full-year results since listing were largely positive. On 26 March it announced it had beat its own forecast and posted pre-tax profits of $15.1 million against $12.6 million the year before.
Fair Isaac had been trading around its 52-week-low mark, but bounced back last week after investors reacted positively to cost-cutting announcements and statements dismissing reports that its FICO credit scoring technology exacerbated elements of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. It finished Friday up 9.82% to $24.38.
Fair Isaac plans to cut 420 jobs and shed several business units under a restructuring programme designed to boost revenue and cut costs by $100 million a year. Its first move after announcing this plan was to sell its insurance bill-review business to San Diego, Calif.-based Mitchell International for an undisclosed sum.
Other companies to see significant gains last week were:
Chordiant Software saw the index's biggest fall last week as it revealed expectations for a weaker Q2. Its shares ended Friday down 14.92% to $5.19 after revealing that for the quarter ended March 31, the company forecasts a loss of 16 cents to 11 cents per share, down from a profit of 15 cents per share in the same period a year earlier. The company also forecast revenue between $23.5 million and $25 million.
While Indian outsourcing firms held on to the previous weeks' gains, two Indian software vendors were among last week's losers. Lending software specialist
Nucleus Software was down 6.90% for the week, closing at Rs189.00, while banking software vendor
Polaris was down 5.92% to Rs 79.50.
Index comparison
MethodologyMore information on the Finextra50 Financial Technology Index methodology and constituent stocks can be found
here.