The Finextra50 Financial Technology Index closed up .79% at 99.92 on Friday, as many fintech stocks rose on positive earnings announcements and Thomson's acquisition of Reuters began to look more certain. SimCorp and S1 were the biggest gainers, while Vasco Data Security and i-flex had the biggest falls.
Major gainers
Danish treasury and investment management software firm SimCorp saw the biggest gain of our index stocks this week, as it closed up 13.4% to DKr1,287 on the back of positive Q1 earnings. For the three months ended March 31, 2007 it reported revenue of EUR 34.1 million, an improvement of 43% relative to the year-earlier period. Its order intake for the quarter was EUR 10.6 million, a 47% improvement on the year-earlier period. The company maintains its 2007 projection 15 per cent revenue growth with an EBIT margin of approximately 20%.
S1 rose 6.9%, ending the week at $7.95 after hitting a 52-week high of $8. The stock is enjoying a continuing upward trend after S1 beat analyst estimates with its quarterly earnings results on May 8.
Chordiant Software closed up 4.5% to $13.93 in a week in which it announced a new patent for predictive decisioning technology, which it will incorporate in its customer experience managment software. The patent covers the design and implementation of a new type of predictive analytics algorithm created specifically to use customer data to accurately predict behaviour and propensities across key business areas including product purchasing, retention, and risk.
Jack Henry closed the week up 4.4% to $25.64, with rising momentum on the back of its May 10 quarterly earnings announcement. It posted a quarterly revenue rise of 18.7% year-on-year, despite a fall in license revenue of 25%.
Other major gainers were Australia's Computershare, up 4.2% to A$11.27, and Reuters, which rose 3.9% to 638p, as the Reuters Founders Share Company backed the Thomson acquisition deal, and details emerged about how the new company would be structured.
Major losers
Authentication technology vendor Vasco Data Security had the index's largest share price fall last week, closing down 6.6% to $20.4. The stock has been levelling out over the course of the past month after a rapid 21% rise on April 26 when it announced first-quarter profit had more than quadrupled and sales nearly doubled.
I-flex ended the week down 5.7% to Rs 2,231.85. Indian technology stocks in general are static or falling as a result of the rupee rising against the US dollar and two US senators pursuing an investigation into alleged abuse of the country's H1-B visa programme. I-flex was reportedly one of nine companies to receive a letter from the US lawmakers.
Website moneycontrol.com has also reported that Indian market regulator Sebi is considering changes to its delisting procedures. This could pave the way for i-flex's majority shareholder Oracle to complete total acquisition of core banking system vendor.