Business Week - New deals boost index

Accountancy-related companies saw much activity sending their shares rising for a second time consecutive week led by the index’s most heavily weighted stock.

After a weak start, the Accountancy Age/ADVFN index rose 0.63 points to reach 104.533 points, just off highs seen two weeks ago.

Meanwhile the FTSE-100 was down 1.10 points closing at 109.29 points last Thursday.

The index’s most heavily weighted stock, QSP Group, rose 10% last week after the financial management company announced on 15 May that it had won a lucrative £500,000 deal to provide energy supplier Powergen with financial services via an applications service provider.

Starting next month, QSP is expected to run finance and business intelligence systems for Powergen’s staff for a period of five years according to the contract.

Capita Group was a close runner up as the professional support services company rose 9% after saying that it had acquired the Royal & Sun Alliance Trust Companies for #24m along with the remaining stake in myshares, a provider of software for the administration of employee shares, for £2m.

On the down side, Robert Walters shares continued to sag losing 2% despite an announcement that it has completed the acquisition of the Dunhill Group, a global recruitment and human resources outsourcing business. Reed Executive continued its drop, falling 2%, closing at 219p.

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