There are few bright spots around as investors remain nervous ahead of the US non-farm payroll figures, and even those few are not particularly bright.
But one of them is software group Sage, edging up 1.3p to 253.7p on hopes that the cash investors receive from Hewlett Packard's £7bn purchase of Autonomy could find its way back into the sector. George O'Connor at Panmure Gordon said:
The Autonomy payback will need a home. Whilst the investors in Sage and Autonomy had traditionally come from different 'camps', this gap is being eroded by Sage's new growth initiatives. The UK launch of the Sage SalesLogix Cloud is a watershed moment. 'Cloud' is selling well in this market and this will drive subscribers, revenue growth and re-rate the share – and appear on Autonomy investor screens. In addition, Sage will be mooted as a take-over candidate – by one of the industry behemoths.
