Silicon Fen Top 20 gains 7.4% in February, pushed along by Alizyme but held back by Plasmon
It has been an eventful debut month for the Silicon Fen Top 20 share index. It finished trading on Friday at 123.25, gaining 7.4% over 30 days, but not without a major scare along the way.
The big gainers were drug developer Alizyme (ALM.L), which climbed 35%, biotech Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT.L), up 18% and data technologist Autonomy (AU.L), up 16%, all of whom had good news to relate. Alizyme reported successful Phase IIa trials of its anti-mucositis drug, while CAT and Autonomy released strong financial results for 2005.
The month's big loser was data storage solution provider Plasmon (PLM.L), which shed 37%, but it wasn't alone. Sound technologist NXT (NTX.L) lost 21%, CMR Fuel Cells (CMF.L), was down 16% and Bango (BGO.L), which develops mobile internet platforms, shed 13%.
The least-changed stock was cell therapist Intercytex (ICX.L), which joined the stock market at the beginning of February. It spiked on listing and then slipped back almost to where it started to end the month up just 0.43%.
The Silicon Fen Top 20 Share Index measures the collective share price performance of the largest 20 companies by market capitalisation headquartered in the Cambridge Cluster. It was developed and is administered by Silicon Fen Business Report.
Of course high tech stocks are renowned for their volatility, but the roller coaster that CSR (CSR.L) shares were thrown onto seemed excessive for this well-established company that is a global leader in Bluetooth technology.
Déjà vu for CSR
A week before CSR released its 2005 results, its share price started its stomach churning ride (see chart). There was some modest selling ahead of the results as if often the case because some traders try to second guess events. This gentle decline turned out to be akin to reaching the head of a waterfall. When the results were released to the stock market, the share price went over the edge, and it swiftly hit a 30-day low of 905p, having started the month at 1143p. A few analysts, it seems, were spooked by the seasonal variation in sales, apparently ignoring, or unaware that exactly the same thing had happened this time last year.
The next day common sense prevailed as others, including heavyweight investment bankers UBS, recognized the quality of earnings and almost as quickly the share price recovered to reach 1127p by Friday evening, leaving it just 3.3% down on the month.
Top performer Alizyme climbed steadily during the month and then spurted ahead after it announced successful Phase IIa trials of its anti-mucositis drug. It is now the fifth largest quoted high-tech company in Silicon Fen with a market capitalization of £346m.
Plasmon's announcement that sales had slowed in January and February squeezing liquidity and that it was raising £6m through a share placement was not well received. News that its order book in March was showing signs of recovery did not save its share price from savage slide of 37.5%.
Amidst the adrenalin, several companies recorded solid gains that in less frenetic times would be noteworthy. Vaccine developer Acambis (ACM.L) was up 8.7%, inkjet printer technologist Xaar (XAR.L) gained 5.9% and Domino Printing (DNO.L) was up 5.3%, despite one broker recommending a switch out of Domino into Xaar.
Data security firm nCipher (NCH.L) gained 10.7% but that was matching the recommended takeover offer from US-based SafeNet. When the takeover is complete, nCipher will be delisted and replaced in the Top 20.
Heavy-weight chip maker ARM Holdings (ARM.L) was down 2.9%.
5th March 2006
