YP75: Markets remain wary as the summer holiday draws to close

With continuing debate over whether global economies will enter a double dip recession, equity markets are likely to trade within a tight range, at least until the holiday period is over and volumes increase as traders return to their desks.

A busy week for Yorkshire-based companies started with Syntopix Group announcing a deal on Monday with a leading consumer products company. Syntopix Group, the Bradford-based research and development business focusing on healthcare, declined to comment on who the exclusive arrangement was with or any financial details but described the company as a "world leader".

The agreement gives Syntopix the first refusal to develop a compound that is still under clinical evaluation and builds on its strategy of identifying potential compounds through its comprehensive antimicrobial and drug delivery screening technologies.

The market reacted well to the announcement as Syntopix will receive payments throughout the clinical phase helping the shares end up over the week.

Persimmon released a half-yearly report on Tuesday, showing a sharp rise in pre-tax profit with revenue climbing 27 per cent, to 776.6m.

Underlying pre-tax profit was 39.m compared with a loss of 16.7m announced at the last set of results.

On Wednesday, SIG stated through its interim results that sales per day in July were up by about 4 per cent against the prior year, and the sales trend in August remains in positive territory.

The improvement has been driven by growth in France, Germany and the UK with the management still intent on reducing net debt through further cost savings.

UK Coal reported a wider pre-tax loss following production problems and the costs of refinancing its debts and announced that it expects to sell a significant portion of its agricultural land bank to reduce debt.

Adrian Wasson Assistant Investment Manager at Brewin Dolphin, Leeds

The company reported a pre-tax loss of 93.2m for the six months to June 26, compared with a loss of 81.5m a year earlier.

There has been significant investment in the group's deep mining operations and the last loss-making legacy supply agreement expires in 2011.

On a busy Wednesday, Drax and Severfield-Rowen shares suffered following a downgrade to underweight by Morgan Stanley for Drax and a cautious outlook from the Severfield-Rowen board as interim underlying pre-tax profit was 8.2m compared with 24.6m previously.

Thursday saw Henry Boot, a property development, investment and construction business, announce pre-tax profits of 9m for the six months ending June 30. The board indicated that trading was in line with expectations.