Market Report: Imagination Technologies' dream is 'turning into a nightmare'

For Imagination Technologies, the “dream is turning into a nightmare”. That’s the verdict of Numis, which sent shares in the microchip designer tumbling yesterday as it downgraded it to a sell.

The broker is worried that the company is losing favour with one of its key customers, Taiwanese chip manufacturer Mediatek. Nick James at Numis fears the company is losing ground to rival Arm, noting that three out of the four most recent chips launched by Mediatek used Arm designs.

Imagination Technologies slipped 15.5p to 191p, while Arm Holdings climbed 11p to 838.5p.

The onset of the post-QE world failed to shake the FTSE 100, which added 9.68 points to 6463.55. Fake hip maker Smith & Nephew was buoyed 36p to 1054p after unveiling a solid set of third quarter results. It revealed a 3 per cent rise in profits for the quarter.

Hawkish comments from the Fed prompted a bounce for the dollar – which meant trouble for gold producers. Randgold Resources slipped 242p to 3779p, Fresnillo lost 32.5p to 716.5p, African Barrick Gold fell 1.9p to 214.1p and Petropavlovsk dipped 2.25p to 23.25p.

Under pressure Afren slumped 14.55p to 78.7p after missing third quarter production targets, blaming weather-related delays at its offshore Ebok field in Nigeria. The oil producer has been left reeling by a probe into “unauthorised payments” that culminated in the dismissal of chief executive Osman Shahenshah.

After Wednesday’s surge, Gulf Keystone Petroleum added a further 2p to 65.75p as the Kurdish government approved development of the Akri-Bijeel site, of which Gulf Keystone owns 20 per cent.

Software support and consultancy specialist Castleton Technology added 0.2p to 1.5p on AIM after announcing a deal to snap up Documotive Limited, a software supplier to the social housing sector.

Karelian Diamond Resources sparkled 0.15p to 1.7p on AIM after securing exploration licenses in Finland. Independent Oil & Gas tumbled 1.37p to 11.62p after the North Sea-focused explorer confirmed that it is considering possible fundraising.