The Finextra50 Financial Technology Index fell 1.5% last week to finish at 79.71, again a record low since the index was first benchmarked in May 2007.
Since the index was created to reflect the performance of technology and services companies that predominantly serve the financial sector, only six companies have increased in value. These are Choicepoint, Temenos, Morningstar, S1, Pegasystems and Software Solution Partnership.
This is not surprising when you consider that the S&P1200 Global Financial Sector index, representing major banks around the world and the customer base for our index companies, has itself fallen 38.46% since May last year.
Fallers
Australia's Bravura Solutions was again the index's biggest faller last week, dropping 17.48% to AUD$0.85. There is continuing doubt over its proposed takeover by Ironbridge Capital. And the ASX is looking into the share price increase seen just before the company announced it has a revised "in principle" agreement in place with Ironbridge to take the deal forward - despite the ongoing issue of executive share ownership and lower than forecast earnings.
Outsourcing specialist
Cognizant also slid last week, closing Friday down 11.45% to $28.16 week after Goldman Sachs analyst Julio Quinteros cut his rating on the stock to Neutral from Buy on a valuation basis, citing limited near-tern earnings upside and/or multiple expansion opportunities.
i-flex also fell last week, dropping 11.99% to Rs1333.30
Gainers
Despite falls for a number of the index's largest firms, and for the index overall, there were some bright spots last week for several US and Indian fintech firms. Those that saw significant share price rise last week include:
S1, up 9.87% to $7.90
Polaris Software, up 8.24% to Rs76.15
Fundtech, up 8.22% to $14.35
Vasco Data Security, up 7.92% to $11.04
Index comparison
Methodology
More information on the Finextra50 Financial Technology Index methodology and constituent stocks can be found here.