Friday’s Master Investor Market Report

– The FTSE 100 closed the day at 6,104.11, a decrease of 82.88 points.
– The FTSE 250 fell by 92.72 points to finish at 16,950.73.
– The FTSE All Share dropped by 39.85 points to 3,365.68.
– The FTSE AIM All Share finished at 742.09, up by 1.36 points.

The US Federal Reserve decided to hold interest rates steady last night, citing fears of “heightened uncertainty” in the global economy. Analysts, and committee members, were split over the decision, but Fed Chair Janet Yellen explained the move by saying that “we’ve long expected to see some slowing in Chinese growth over time as they rebalance their economy. There are no surprises there. The question is whether or not there will be a risk of a more abrupt slowdown than most analysts expect”.

Iron ore producer Ferrexpo (FXPO) said its Ukraine-based transactional bank has been declared insolvent by the National Bank of Ukraine. The miner’s shares dropped by 32.2% to 40p and Investec commented that “while Ferrexpo had highlighted the potential risk in its recent accounts, given the progressive recapitalisation efforts by F&C, this has still come as a surprise to us. The company has $106m held offshore, so operations can continue while Ferrexpo seeks extensions from existing and other banks, but it is clearly not an ideal situation”.

Shares in Petra Diamonds (PDL) climbed by 2.68% to 111p despite the company reporting a 10% drop in revenues for the year ended 30th June. Management blamed the drop on its mature mines and lower diamond prices outweighing an improvement in volume. However, the company also declared its maiden dividend of $0.03 (2p).

Cancer immunotherapy specialist Scancell Holdings (SCLP) saw its loss for the year ended 30th April widen to £2.4 million as the firm upped spending to clinically test a number of products. Cash balances also took a hit and stood at £3 million at the period close, but initial reports on drug efficacy were positive and management are confident in their product’s market potential. Scancell shares fell by 0.25p to 27.75p.

Monday’s news today

Finsbury Foods (FIF), Purecircle (PURE) and Allergy Therapeutics (AGY) will publish final results on Monday.

Quote of the day

“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
– Albert Einstein