Sector movers: ARM has more tricks up its sleeve

5th Jan 2012 13:40

Chip designer ARM Holdings leads the Technology sector higher after a bullish research note from UBS.The Swiss bank reckons ARM's fourth-quarter revenues could be up to 6% higher than the market is expecting.UBS analyst Gareth Jenkins also took a look at other potential catalysts for share price gains."While it will be hard to top the news-flow of the prior two years (Microsoft Windows, big.LITTLE, 64 bit), we do see further positives to come including possible Broadcom set top box and Samsung Exynos (using Mali graphics) announcements, launch of 64-bit processors and, longer term, possibly Renesas for microcontrollers and Apple for Mali," Jenkins said."In addition the rise of multi-processor chipsets should help support royalty rates," he added.At the opposite end of the scale is the Healthcare Equipment sector, where Smith & Nephew gives back some of the gains seen yesterday when it announced plans to hive off its biologics arm.Elsewhere in the sector Deltex Medical, which makes technology to measure blood flow in patients undergoing surgery, is having a volatile day on the back of the publication of results from new CardioQ-ODM system.The shares initially advanced on the news but have since slumped.The CardioQ-ODM system, which immediately identifies even very small changes in the blood flow, thus allowing doctors to intervene earlier and on smaller changes than with any other approach, has been implemented in bowel surgery in the USA within an enhanced recovery programme. Doctors from a hospital in North Carolina presented their findings from the first 142 patients, which showed that lengths of hospital stay for patients undergoing open surgery were reduced by 40% from 11.8 to 7.1 days.Top performing sectors so far todayTechnology Hardware & Equipment 764.33 +2.68%Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 23,119.89 +1.42%Real Estate Investment Trusts 1,769.97 +1.12%Banks 3,459.91 +1.00%Beverages 10,565.94 +0.70%Bottom performing sectors so far todayHealth Care Equipment & Services 3,456.03 -2.17%Construction & Materials 3,454.26 -1.82%Food & Drug Retailers 4,626.86 -1.79%Mobile Telecommunications 4,089.92 -1.64%Industrial Transportation 2,161.18 -1.33%jh