The Finextra50 Financial Technology Index closed last week down to 85.01. Bravura led the gainers on the back of a significant new contract with The Bank of New York Mellon. But with most markets down 4% to 5% last week, overall index performance was down, led by Chordiant Software, which downgraded its 2008 outlook due to weakness in the North American retail financial services sector.
Major gainers
Australian wealth management system supplier Bravura Solutions saw the index's biggest share price rise last week as it announced a new contract for an initial value of AUD$15 million with existing client The Bank of New York Mellon.
The company closed Friday up 27.86% on the previous week at AUD$1.79. The new agreement extends Bravura's existing five year contract with The Bank of New York until the end of 2013 following its purchase of the Rufus Software business in December 2006. As part of the deal the Rufus transfer agency suite will be extended in The Bank of New York Mellon's administration offices in London, Edinburgh and Pune, India.
US business intelligence vendor Actuate bounced back 11.27% last week to finish at $4.74, after taking a beating the previous week due to predicting flat growth for 2008 despite record Q4 earnings and only just missing out on analyst estimates. There is some speculation that, at current valuation, Actuate could be an attractive acquisition target for a company like IBM or Oracle due to the strength of its analytics solutions in the financial services industry. This consolidation play is perhaps more likely given that two other big business intelligence players, Cognos and Business Objects, were acquired at significant premiums last year by IBM and SAP respectively.
Other companies to rise last week include:
- Cognizant, up 6.70% to $31.84
- Advent Software, up 5.82% to $49.06
- Microgen, up 5.41% to 39.00p
- Oberthur Card Systems, up 5.02% to EUR5.02
Major losersChordiant Software was the index's biggest faller last week, finishing down 21.80% to $6.60. The customer management software company announced fiscal first quarter revenue of $29.1 million, up 27% year on year with earnings of $0.05 per share beating analyst estimates of $.01 per share. But the company issued a downgraded outlook statement for the full year 2008 of $0.40-0.58 EPS, excluding non-recurring items, against a $0.71 consensus analyst view. The company claims this is due to weakening demand in the North American financial services sector.
Other companies to see significant falls last week include:
- Temenos, down 13.81% to CHF23.10
- Vasco Data Security, down 10.77% to $16.98
- Wincor Nixdorf, down 8.61% to EUR49.81
- SEI Investments, down 7.80% to $26.24
Index comparisonFortnightly percentage change since May 2007
MethodologyMore information on the Finextra50 Financial Technology Index methodology and constituent stocks can be found
here.