Market Report for week ended March 14
Volatility was wide spread this week as the markets swung between extremes. After widespread carnage midweek, the markets made a spectacular comeback on Thursday.
The FTSE came back from a seven and a half year low on Wednesday, by gaining over 6% during Thursday’s session.
This rally ensured that the market closed Thursday’s session at 3486.9, down by a mere 0.13 percent from last week.
Much of the same was true for the Nasdaq, which gained 4.8 percent on Thursday alone, to close at 1340.77, up by 2.72 percent from last Friday.
The tech laced index fell as low as 1271.47 earlier on during the week. The DJIA had gained 1.06% from last Friday, when it closed Thursday’s session at 7821.75, a 1.06% gain from last week, after recovering from more than a 3% decline in its value.
War with Iraq remained the single most important factor on investors’ minds, as news that France would veto a second UN resolution what ever its wording sent a fresh dose of nervous sentiment across the markets.
Many analysts’ believe that Thursday's rally was due to a reduction in the uncertainty surrounding the much talked about war. This coupled with speculation that any war would be short and swift helped encourage investors to profit from cheap stocks on offer.
The US dollar, which has struggled in recent weeks as the oil prices have sky rocketed benefited from this, gaining over 1% against the euro.
In London, the markets mirrored sentiment in the US, as the expectation of a short war helped investors regain some confidence on Thursday. This resulted in a gain of 200 points during Thursday’s session alone, after the market fell to its lowest level in seven and a half years on Wednesday.
Irish company Horizon Technologies (HOR.L) announced results for the 2002 fiscal year. The company beat expectations by reporting EBITDA of €8m, up from €4.4m the year before. Pre-tax loss for the period was €12.47m for the year, down from a loss of €22.87m the previous year.
Following the announcement, the company’s shares rose by 9.5% from last week to STG23.
Rapid Technology, (RTG.L) announced that it was to acquire Electric Paper Ltd, a company which specialises in the development and supply of educational products focused on the computer literacy market.
The company is to pay a total of €15.5m for the acquisition. It also announced that it is to transfer its Screenkey technology and to change its name to ThirdForce.
e-Learning company SkillSoft (Nasdaq: SKIL) also announced preliminary results for Q4 2002. It said that it expects revenue to exceed the $40m compared to $30m in Q3.
However, despite this, the company is expecting a net loss, excluding restructuring charges, of around $ 6m. SkillSoft shares fell during the week by $5.45 to close at $2.6.
Iona Technologies (Nasdaq: IONA) unveiled a new product, Mobile Orchestrator, a web services based process integration broker optimised for applications that serve occasionally connected users. Its shares fell by 12.6% during the week to close at USD 2.6.
