Thursday’s Master Investor Market Report

The FTSE 100 closed the day at 6,374.82, an increase of 38.47 points.

The FTSE 250 fell by 27.41 points to finish at 17,003.81.

The FTSE All Share climbed by 15.91 points to 3,487.16.

The FTSE AIM All Share finished at 732.22, down by 1.19 points.
Paper specialist Mondi (MNDI) filed underlying profits of €221 million (£162.8 million) for the three months ended 30th September, a 27% boost over the comparable period of last year on the back of price increases for a number of products and improved like-for-like sales volumes almost across the board. Shares in the company dropped by 3p to 1,456p.

Miner Centamin (CEY) maintained flat gold output during the third quarter of 2015 relative to the second, but was still up by 13% from the comparable period of the prior year. Management believe that further increases in production are possible as the company works to refine its open pit and subterranean operations in Egypt. Centamin shares rose by 0.30p to 65p.

Retailer Dunhelm (DNLM) increased its sales for the 13 weeks ended 3rd October by 12% to £202.3 million as the company launched a new web store and continued to open new outlets. Management said that it remains convinced that there are a number of strong growth opportunities in the medium term. Dunhelm shares climbed 20p to 915p.

AIM listed travel and distribution firm Dart Group (DTG) saw its Jet2Holidays package customer numbers for the six months to 30th September rise by 21% to 0.93 million, but passengers for its Jet2 airline fell to around 4.5 million. Operating profits for the half year are expected to be around 60% higher than in the same period of 2014, but management issued a warning that cost relating to the expansion of it leisure travel operations would hit second half earnings. The shares fell by 2.75p to 462.25p.

Tomorrow’s news today

Vedanta Resources (VED) posts its interim results tomorrow morning.

Quote of the day

“The meek shall inherit the Earth, but not its mineral rights.”
– J Paul Getty