Business Week - Recovery continues.

The Accountancy Age/ADVFN index continued its slow climb back to respectability, finishing a healthy 9.46 points up on the week at 71.68.

All the stocks in the index were up significantly this week with the exception of accountancy software provider QSP, whose shares remain suspended at 7.5p.

Hays’ share price held up despite brokers lowering their forecasts for the personnel group after several rival groups warned of a further slowdown in the recruitment sector.

Logica’s price slipped towards the end of the week, though remained higher than the previous week. The slip reflected market sentiment suggesting it was not likely to outperform the overall market, and would only follow the upwards trend of the stockmarkets. Sage, the software and computer services company, leapt nearly 30 points to finish the week at 194.25.

This was despite a warning business would be hit by the 11 September events. However, the company also reported profits would be broadly in line with market expectations.

Misys continued to move up, but expect it to be down next week after Lehman slashed its profit forecasts for the company.

Robert Walters and Reed Personnel also made steady progress, both finishing up on the week, in line to the improvement with the FTSE-100, which came as welcome relief – how long this will continue remains to be seen.

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