It’s been another positive month on the stock markets. The FTSE100 managed a 1.3% gain making 7.85% for the year so far. The FTSE Telcom Index was the only one of the indices we track to show a decline. Although down 1.3%, it’s still up an impressive 9% YTD. This month’s fall was all down to Vodafone (down 3.8%). BT’s impressive Q3 performance (See BT Global Services makes Q3 profits gain) contributed to a 7.7% rise in their shares (+16% YTD) and a 7.6% (15.4% YTD) rise in the FTSE Fixed Line Telcom Index.
The FTSE Hardware Index was the best performer – up 9% (23% YTD) – mainly due to its largest constituent ARM which put on 10.7% in Feb ( 24.5% YTD). Our headline on their Q4 results says all you need to know – ARM – they don’t come much better.
Closer to the companies we track, the FTSE SCS Index was up another 6.95% - making a gain of 12.3% YTD.
As a shareholder of long-standing, it was good to see Blinkx (video search) getting the Winners Cup for February with a massive 56% gain. The ‘exceptional’ (a word used in its right context) performance in H1 was the immediate cause – see Blinkx blasting ahead. Being a Blinkx shareholder is not something for the feint-hearted. An IPO in May 07 at 45p they then sank to 11p before soaring to 156p in Oct 11 and then sinking all the way down to 34p again by June 12. So last night’s close of 91p is pretty neatly in the middle of the many extremes. Blinkx is in a very sweet spot and will, fortunately for shareholders but unfortunately for all those who rather like UK companies, become someone’s M&A target.
FFastfill (derivatives software) also soared 41% as a result of an all cash offer from Pattington – See Ffastfill under offer.
At the other end of the scale, Promethean (education hardware) fell 37%. They announced a 30% revenue fall this month – See Promethean battles on in tough education market. Sophean also fell 22% despite putting out a better than expected trading update. See Sopheon pulling ahead of expectations.
Internationally, it was unusual to see HP in the higher echelons of the charts this month with a 22% gain. In HP turnaround long way to go we described Q1 2013 as ‘calmer, but certainly no signs of glowing health”. Putting last night’s $20 share price into context, HP traded at just $12 in Nov 12 – down a massive 77% from $53 in Apr 10. The Mike Lynch/Autonomy story has still to play out putting Meg Whitman’s position in serious doubt if it doesn’t go ‘her way’.
Sopra also had a good month; recording a 21% gain. See Acquisitions bring massive boost to Sopra UK. Computer Sciences (CSC) also rose another 15% on the announcement of Q3 results this month . The turnaround since Mike Lawrie took the helm is truly impressive - See CSC’s turnaround ‘tracking to plan’.
There were few real global howlers this month. Facebook is down 12% at $27 which is hardly worthy of note given the strong performance/recovery of late.
The last few months have been impressive for investors – particularly in tech stocks. Of course, we can almost guarantee that 7% per month stock gains are pretty unlikely to continue each month for the rest of the year. Whether we get a ‘correction’ (possibly brought on by ‘events’ like another Euro crisis or ‘Fiscal Cliff’ in the US) or a ‘plateau’ remains to be seen.