Friday’s Master Investor Market Report

– The FTSE 100 closed the day at 6,109.01, an increase of 147.52 points.
– The FTSE 250 rose by 285.34 points to finish at 16,799.87.
– The FTSE All Share climbed by 75.11 points to 3,361.43.
– The FTSE AIM All Share finished at 732.87, up by 3.98 points.

A report from Capital Economics has suggested that the cost of a Brexit to the UK’s financial services sector could have been overdone. In the paper, UK Economist Vicky Redwood wrote that “a British exit from the EU would probably hurt the City in the short term, but it would not spell disaster”, particularly if the country was able to independently negotiate more favourable trade deals with emerging nations.

Outsourcing specialist Capita (CPI) has bought IT network provider Electranet for a cash consideration of £37 million. Electranet reported an operating profit of £2.7 million for the prior financial year with a £15.1 million turnover and is predicted to almost double both metrics in the current period. Following the acquisition, the firm will be integrated in Capita’s IT Enterprise Services arm. Capita shares grew by 15p and closed at 1,212p.

Shares in pub landlord Fuller Smith & Turner (FSTA) dropped by 2.54% to 1,164p amid rumours that the firm was one of the competitors in a battle to take over the London bar operator Cubbitt House. The value of the offer is unclear, but there is said to be a rival bid from Young & Co (YNGA). Young’s shares moved up by 0.50p to 1,200p.

Broadcaster and entertainment producer Sky (SKY) saw revenues for the year ended 30th June increase by 5% to £11.3 billion as the company secured more than a million new subscribers following the takeovers of Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland. With churn numbers also around 10% lower, the firm increased its operating profits to £1.4 billion. The shares advanced 17p to 1,034p.

Monday’s news today

Pennant International (PEN), Milton Group (MGR) and Flowgroup (FLOW) will publish interim results on Monday.

Quote of the day

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”
– Albert Einstein