Beyond the Footsie: Thursday close
SMALLER company shares, like their blue chip counterparts, ended the day in positive territory, buoyed by solid gains on Wall Street. At the close, the FTSE SmallCap index was up 14.2 points at 1,963.8.
Gresham Computing was one of the day's best performers after announcing that an online financial transactions system based on its software is to be adopted by banking heavyweights ANZ Bank, Barclays, JP Morgan Chase and Mizuho. Gresham's shares closed up 58 1/2p, or 58% at 166 1/2p.
Fellow tech company Gladstone was also higher, jumping 3.88p to close at 14p after saying it expects profits for the year to August 31 to beat expectations. Order books are at their highest levels since the current board took over.
ARC Risk Management rose 1/4p to 1 1/4p on news it has agreed a new contract with QBE International Insurance for the provision of crisis management consultancy.
And Bristol & West Investments jumped 1.88p, or nearly 23% to 10.25p after revealing it has received a tentative bid approach.
Kensington pushed ahead after a bullish trading update, which saw Citigroup's Smith Barney lift its profit forecasts for the mortgage group.
Completions for the five months to April 30 were over £700m, up more than 110% year-on-year. Smith Barney repeated its 'outperform' rating on the company and lifted its price target to 278p from 240p and increased its pretax profit estimate for the current year by 3 pct to £35m. Kensington shares ended 20 1/2p higher at 249 1/2p.
On the downside, Marconi slumped 0.22p to 0.60p as long-suffering shareholders received formal confirmation that its shares will be delisted with effect from tomorrow. The company said a US court has given it the final go ahead for its restructuring.
Womenswear group Slimma shed 8 1/2p to 43p after reporting a slide in first-half profits and warning that full-year earnings will be below last year.
A warning about falling sales hit Telspec. Its shares slid 2 1/2p to 15p. And XTL Biopharm lost 0 3/4p at 10 1/4p after cancelling its AGM set for June 3 following a request by certain shareholders to raise resolutions on the agenda.
