The LAFDI had another tough week against a backdrop of broad gains in global equity markets as investors cheered the larger than expected package of QE from the ECB.
Set against this risk positive market context there were some idiosyncratic events for LAFDI constituents that resulted in another week of under-performance extending the poor start to 2015.
Weekly return
LAFDI
-2.13%
MSCI World
+2.90%
Top 5 performing Stocks in last week
1
MNY AU Equity
7.36%
2
XOOM US Equity
6.53%
3
NSM US Equity
5.54%
4
PAY LN Equity
3.91%
5
PFG LN Equity
3.67%
Worst 5 performing Stocks in last week
1
MONI LN Equity
-30.02%
2
TBDY SS Equity
-23.01%
3
LC US Equity
-10.23%
4
ONDK US Equity
-10.00%
5
OPAY LN Equity
-2.80%
* Prices from local market close of business Thursday-Thursday
The index was led by Aussie small cap Money3 which added an impressive 7.3% as alternative lending as a concept begins to gain traction in Australia.
Xoom put on something of a recovery after recent travails - gaining 6.5% over the week - boosted by analyst upgrades and news that the company will begin to incorporate Apple’s finger print technology.
Unfortunately however most of the action was to be found amongst the worst performers.
Monitise delivered an extremely disappointing update with news that revenues will under-shoot resulting in updated guidance of a full year EBITDA loss of $60-76m, revised from an expected $33m loss. This news was not tempered by indications that the company will review strategic options i.e. investigate a sale. The market is clearly taking the view that it might be hard to find buyers and Monitise is a salutary lesson to the sector that it can be extremely hard to make money even from a strong product.
TrustBuddy also suffered, perhaps as a function of the over-hang that will result from the planned acquisition of its two European peers, Prestiamoci and Geldvoorelkaar. The associated issuance of equity was confirmed in late December.
Lending Club, one of the newest LAFDI constituents added at the recent quarterly review, struggled to maintain the lofty valuation achieved post IPO as the shares fell back towards $19, albeit still comfortably above the IPO price of $15.
