Thursday’s Master Investor Market Report

• The FTSE 100 fell 50.10 points to 6,535.68.
• The FTSE 250 tumbled 170.18 points to 17,443.28.
• The FTSE All Share decreased by 28.49 points to 3,573.98.
• The FTSE AIM All Share finished 5.82 points lower at 758.15.
  

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee has once again voted to hold rates at 0.5%. The scale of the Bank’s quantitative easing program also remained unchanged. Markit’s Chris Williamson commented that “no statement was made but, with inflation at just 0.1%, the Bank’s inflation target of 2.0% is clearly still a long way off and, with ‘Grexit’ concerns casting a dark cloud of instability over the economic outlook, now is clearly not the time for central banks to be causing further uncertainty“.

Recruitment consultancy Hays (HAS) saw net fees for the 3 months ended 30th June increase by 5%, driven by a strong performance in the UK and Ireland. Adverse currency movements substantially dampened the impact of good like-for-like growth in Asian market. Demand for permanent placements drove most of the improvement.

Goldman Sachs has added Prudential (PRU) to its “conviction buy” list, but vut its target price to 1,845p. According to the bank’s analysts, Prudential is less exposed to the Eurozone than many of its peers and the note this morning said that “its Asia life business, focused on annual premium protection sales, has provided resilience through many equity market cycles“. Prudential shares

Plus500 (PLUS) reported a decline in sales for the 3 months ended 30th June to $44.9 million (£29.18 million) as it continued to face tight regulatory scrutiny. Trading levels remain low and margins have dropped, but management asserted that full year results would be in line with 2014. Plus500 shares

Sports facilities operator Goal Soccer Centres (GOAL) took its eye off the ball during the 6 months ended 30th June with UK like-for-like sales dropping by 2% over the period. Overall revenues remained flat at £17.1 million, in part due to difficult weather conditions. N+1 Singer downgraded the shares from “buy” to “hold” but said “owing to a couple of adverse dynamics at play in the period, we feel it would be hasty to rubbish the recovery thesis and feel that the next six months will give a much better understanding“. Goal shares

Conviviality Retail (CVR) has had its shares suspended after it said that it was in talks with drinks distributor Matthew Clark with regard to a possible reverse listing. No details of the deal were announced, but the Bargain Booze owner said that the suspension would remain in place until talks end or an admission document is published.

Tomorrow’s news today

UK balance of trade data will also be published.

Quote of the day

“The length of this document defends it well against the risk of its being read.”
– Winston Churchill