The only index change of note this month was NASDAQ which rose 3.6% making a pretty extraordinary 34.5% rise YTD. Indeed NASDAQ closed at 4060 – the highest close since April 2000. See Let the good times roll. All the UK Indices we follow basically flat-lined as you can see from the table. But all also retaining their major gains for he year. Although worth noting that the 18% rise in the FTSE SCS Index YTD is about half that of NASDAQ.
As usual this flat-lining covered some major differences in performance. Excluding the penny stocks, WANDisco continued to soar – up another 28% this month. The good news just doesn’t stop for WANDisco – See Game changing period at WANdisco. Since their AIM IPO in June 12 at 180p, WANdisco is up a massive 730% at 1488p. Who says you can’t have IPO success and excitement on the London markets?
Intercede, the identity management software provider, put on 26% as Interede reports best ever half year. Xchanging was up 20% after a trading update which was ‘slightly better than expectations’. But is XChanging chasing too many dreams?Blinkx continued to power ahead – up another 19% on great H1 results. Now up 200% YTD making it the best performer in the ‘Holway Portfolio’.
Breaking my vow not to mention penny shares. INVU sunk another 53% and indeed has joined the ranks of the ‘Dearly departed’. An AIM IPO in Jan 2004 at 8.5p they departed this month at 0.3p; although even that was ‘technical’ as I doubt anyone could sell even at that price. In a way, a great shame as we really thought their document management software had promise. Serco was down 18% as its UK boss resigns after it put out a warning for 2014 as it faced a SFO investigation. One can only hope that this is the worst of it – indeed their shares have recovered somewhat from their mid-month nadir.
There was very little of note amongst the global players in terms of share price movement. French Sopra put on 14.5% and it was good to see growth return to their UK operations. Canadian CGI (the old Logica in the UK) also put on 13% on their Q3 results although we reckoned UK revenues fell. HP was up 12% - and has doubled in the last 12 months – as, despite a tough Q3 investors liked the cost cutting that Meg Whitman has put in place. But, as I have often said, you cannot rebuild a company by cost cutting alone. We need to see some areas of growth.
One month to go before we sit down and write yet another year end roundup. It’s been a stunning year so far. Will December bring continued good cheer or a cold front?