Thursday’s Master Investor Market Report

– The FTSE 100 closed the day at 6,376.28, an increase of 27.86 points.
– The FTSE 250 fell by 7.86 points to finish at 17,044.54.
– The FTSE All Share rose by 12.75 points to 3,488.74.
– The FTSE AIM All Share finished at 744.69, down by 0.19 points.

Children’s retailer Mothercare (MTC) posted a 6.5% increase in like-for-like sales for the 13 weeks ended 10th October driven by a 20.4% rise in online orders and end of season sales being pushed back into the next quarter, leading to better full price sell through. On the other side of the spectrum, international sales fell by 5.3% due to adverse currency shifts. Mothercare shares rose by 15.75p to 238.75p.

Property site Zoopla (ZPLA) said that revenues and core earnings for this financial year will be well ahead of last year’s as estate agents that defected to rival online platforms earlier in 2015 continue to return to advertising on Zoopla. Revenues will be in the region of £107 million, up by more than 25% from the £80.2 million achieved in 2014. The shares climbed 10.97% to 260p.

Construction materials firm SIG (SHI) faces crumbling profits for the current year as its markets in mainland Europe collapse. Management said that the deterioration was especially clear in France and that as a result, it would not be seeing the improvement in its performance that it had announced in its half year reports. Management announced that they would be accelerating their cost cutting drive. The shares plummeted to 141.50p, a 20.73% decline.

Engineering outfit GKN (GKN) announced revenues of £5.68 billion for the 9 months ended 30th September, a slight improvement from the comparable period of last year despite some positive currency movements. Management has warned that its key automotive, military, and agricultural markets will decline in the final quarter of 2015. GKN shares rose by 9.60p to 287.50p.

Tomorrow’s news today

Shire (SHP) and William Hill (WMH) will publish reports for the third quarter.

Quote of the day

“There are a handful of people whom money won’t spoil, and we all count ourselves among them.”
– Mignon McLaughlin