Friday’s Master Investor Market Report

– The FTSE 100 closed the day at 6,378.04, an increase of 39.37 points.
– The FTSE 250 fell by 56.80 points to finish at 16,892.70.
– The FTSE All Share climbed by 15.07 points to 3,484.69.
– The FTSE AIM All Share finished at 740.77, up by 4.43 points.

Specialist lender Provident Financial (PFG) has said that it had a strong quarter ended 15th October as its Vanquis Bank continued to outperform expectations with customer numbers up by 12% from the same period of 2014. Management also said that the losses linked to the firm’s Polish pilot operation have been contained. Shore Capital said that the report was encouraging, but felt that Provident Financial’s prospects were already priced in. The shares rose by 172p to 3,350p.

Plastics manufacturer Essentra (ESNT) has agreed to buy the pharmaceutical packaging arm of Kamsri Printing and Packaging for an undisclosed consideration. Management said that the deal would be immediately earnings enhancing and that the takeover should complete by the end of the year. Essentra believes that the acquisition will help it enter attractive new markets. The shares eased back 6p to 846p.

Rio Tinto (RIO) upped its iron shipments for the third quarter by 17% to 91.3 Mt. However, copper output fell by almost a quarter. Management said that the company remained on track to meet its full year guidance, but Rio Tinto felt that the copper numbers were significantly below what might have been hoped. Rio Tinto shares dropped by 20.5p to 2,492.5p.

Shares in mobile and internet content provider SyQic (SYQ) moved up by 5.56% to 28.50p after the firm launched a new payment platform for its primary product that management said will help it to accelerate its expansion by allowing it to collect payments directly from consumers rather than via telecommunications providers.

Monday’s news today

Lok’n Store (LOK) will post its final results on Monday morning.

Quote of the day

“Vote for the man who promises least; he’ll be the least disappointing.”
– Bernard Baruch