Sector movers: Software up loads
The software & computer services sector was top dog on Thursday while industrial metals and health care were sick as dogs.
The software sector was climbing on the back of well received results from Micro Focus as the turnaround specialist showed that it was getting on top of the integration of its biggest ever deal. The merger with HPE's software business in late 2017, so big that it was structured as a reverse takeover, led to a big profit warning in March last year after the integration proved tough under a new CEO Chris Hsu brought over from America. But after old Micro Focus boss Stephen Murdoch took over and started to get to grips with things, the rate of revenue decline eased off as the year went on and was expected to improve further in 2019.
He said the troubles reported for the first half of the year were felt to be "largely one-off transitional effects" of the merger, "rather than underlying issues with the end market of the product portfolio", but while there was still plenty to do, promised to continue churning out cash to return to shareholders.
Others in the sector were higher too, including Aveva, with the industrial software group saying trends in the first half continued into the third quarter as it delivered low double-digit revenue growth in the first nine months of the financial year.
Computacenter was higher, as were Sage and Sophos. Avast, FDM and Softcat were down on the day.
The blood-letting in the health care sector was down to plummeting shares at ConvaTec after the catheters and wound care company reported a “disappointing” fall in profits and unveiled a new plan to turn around its fortunes.
The company said its new turnaround plan would see an investment of around $150m over three years, which it aimed to recoup within two to three years.
In industrial metals, both Evraz and Ferrexpo were both in the red.
After the iron ore price surge on the back of the Brazilian dam collapse, analysts at Liberum said they "don't believe the current price rally is sustainable in the face of weakening Chinese demand. Furthermore, despite the outages, there there are still net mine supply additions in 2019 on our assumptions".
Top performing sectors so far today
Software & Computer Services 1,985.59 +4.82%
Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 15,113.47 +4.37%
Aerospace and Defence 4,988.21 +1.22%
Media 8,113.92 +0.86%
Leisure Goods 7,806.76 +0.81%
Bottom performing sectors so far today
Industrial Metals & Mining 5,080.15 -1.79%
Health Care Equipment & Services 6,816.16 -1.76%
Real Estate Investment & Services 2,529.61 -1.43%
Oil & Gas Producers 9,016.95 -1.22%
General Industrials 5,736.58 -1.10%