Tuesday’s Master Investor Market Report

– The FTSE 100 closed the day at 6,365.27, a decrease of 51.75 points.
– The FTSE 250 fell by 133.49 points to finish at 17,045.17.
– The FTSE All Share dropped by 27.98 points to 3,484.16.
– The FTSE AIM All Share finished at 742.88, down by 5.50 points.

Oil producer BP (BP.) posted an underlying replacement cost profit for the third quarter of $1.82 billion (£1.2 billion), a sharp drop off from the $3.03 billion (£1.97 billion) earned in the comparable period of 2014 due to the steep fall in the price of oil and the booking of a sizeable fine linked to the Deepwater Horizon spill. The company said that it was looking to mitigate this by cutting its Capex spending. Shares in BP fell by 4.40p to 380p.

Defence outfit Chemring (CHG) has warned that between £16 and £33 million of revenues that were expected during the current financial year could be delayed due to issues with permits and export approvals. The company said also said that it was seeking changes to its debt covenants and has proposed to run a new rights issue in the first quarter of next year. Chemring shares plummeted by 22.63% to 175.25p.

Shares in drug researcher Shire (SHP) climbed by 6.9% to 4,927p after the company announced positive results from trials of a clinical study for dry eye disease. The firm will now resubmit its application to the US Food and Drug Administration in early 2016. The FDA had previously requested that further testing take place.

LED specialist Dialight (DIA) said that the continued weakness of the oil and gas sectors dampened performance in the third quarter of the year and that as a result, revenue growth has dropped to 5% during the third quarter. Management are working to cut costs, but warned that there is a great deal of uncertainty going into the end of 2015, after conditions noticeably worsened in the last 3 months. The shares dropped by 103p to 565.50p.

Tomorrow’s news today

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) will report tomorrow.

Quote of the day

“It is only the farmer who faithfully plants seeds in the Spring, who reaps a harvest in the Autumn.”
– B.C Forbes