The Finextra50 Financial Technology Index closed steady last week up .45% to 83.87, as gains for Indian outsourcing stocks were offset by falls for Pegasystems, S1 and Metavante.
As Indian markets saw a slight upturn at the end of last week, it was the outsourcing specialists that benefited most. Mphasis, which is majority owned by EDS, closed Friday up 23.70% to Rs 201.50.
3i Infotech rose 13.71% to Rs101.20 after Jigar Shah, Senior VP & Head Of Research, KIM Eng Securities, told CNBC-TV18 he expects the company to maintain its guidance level, net profit and revenues for 2007-08 and predicts around 25% growth for 2008-09.
Firstsource also ended up 13.10% on Friday to close the week at Rs37.55. All three Indian outsourcing firms held on to their gains and fell only slightly on Monday despite the wider Indian market reversing last week's gains. The S&P CNX NIFTY index started this week with a drop of 4.2%.
Outside of India it was again the outsourcing specialists bucking the downward or static trend in the technology sector. UK based hedge fund outsourcing and analytics specialist GlobeOp Financial Services saw the index's second largest rise last week after posting its first full year results as a public company. Its shares ended the week up 14.22% to 186.75p.
For the year ended 31 December 2007 revenue rose 23% to $166 million from $135.1 million. It posted pre-tax profits of $15.1 million against $12.6 million the year before. Net profit was $6.63 million or $0.08 per share, compared to $7.08 million or $0.10 per share in the prior year. But the results exceeded GlobeOp's own forecast.
"Current volatility may have a negative near-term impact on hedge fund industry growth, but I believe it will also bring new opportunities longer term. Markets remain uncertain but the fundamental industry dynamics are encouraging," said CEO Hans Hufschmid.
Scandanavian outsourcing specialist EDB Business Partner was the other big outsourcing winner last week, rising 12.69% to Nkr37.30.
Other firms to see significant rises last week were Indian banking software firmPolaris, which was up 12.82% to Rs84.50 on Friday; and Vasco Data Security, which rose by 12.16% to $13.74.
Few companies saw significant falls last week, but all three index constituents to drop more than 5% last week were US firms:
Index comparison
MethodologyMore information on the Finextra50 Financial Technology Index methodology and constituent stocks can be found
here.