LONDON (ShareCast) - A largely positive update on the first half attracted buyers to IT services provider Computacenter Thursday, with revenue for the period up around 8%.

The organic growth rate is the strongest “for a number of years”, said the group as an “encouraging” second quarter followed a “particularly tough” first six weeks.

Revenue and profit in the three months to 30 June improved on the first quarter and beat the second quarter of last year thanks to a better effort from UK and French subsidiaries.

Pace also advanced after the set-top box maker said it has continued to make good progress across all of its global markets in the first half.

Due to a beneficial US Dollar/Euro exchange rate, the Pace France business, which was initially expected to be loss making for 2008, is now profitable and the board expects that the group's outturn for the year will significantly exceed current expectations.

“Pace continues to see growth opportunities in the market for digital TV, which it is in a strong position to take advantage of thanks to the diversified geographical and product spread of its enlarged business,” said the group.

“These factors and ongoing improvements within the Pace business, provide the board with greater confidence in the group's 2009 performance, which is now expected to be ahead of the board's previous estimates,” it added.

FTSE TechMARK - Risers
nCipher (NCH) 186.00p +24.00%
Computacenter (CCC) 121.50p +9.46%
Corin Group (CRG) 132.75p +7.06%
Pace (PIC) 86.00p +4.56%
Wolfson Microelectronics (WLF) 107.00p +4.39%
Morse (MOR) 47.00p +3.30%
Skyepharma (SKP) 3.35p +3.08%
Alizyme (AZM) 19.00p +2.70%
Ark Therapeutics (AKT) 59.50p +2.59%
Biocompatibles International (BII) 139.00p +1.46%

FTSE TechMARK - Fallers
Emblaze (BLZ) 31.00p -7.46%
Filtronic (FTC) 71.00p -7.19%
ARC International (ARK) 16.25p -5.80%
Axis-Shield (ASD) 284.00p -3.73%
Indigo Vision (IND) 585.00p -3.70%
Network Technology (NTY) 41.50p -3.49%
Kofax (KFX) 176.00p -3.03%
Redstone (RED) 50.50p -2.88%
SDL International (SDL) 291.50p -2.83%
Innovation Group (TIG) 17.25p -2.82%

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