Interactive Investor

Budget 2014: Market reaction

19th March 2014 15:59

Rebecca O'Keeffe from interactive investor

Whilst pension savers have welcomed the increased flexibility that George Osborne delivered, insurance companies and annuity providers have seen their share prices tumble as a result, with Aviva down over 6% and Standard Life falling nearly 4%.

Removing the requirement for investors to purchase an annuity has stripped away decades of legislation and has increased the level of control investors have over their financial future.

Meanwhile gambling shares including Ladbrokes and William Hill have plummeted after the tax on profits from fixed odds betting terminals was increased to 25%.

Whilst the industry had been looking at some form of self-regulation on gaming machines, this has obviously not been enough and the impact of this new tax has hit the industry hard, with Ladbrokes down 13% and William Hill off 8%

However, on the flip side, bingo companies have seen their numbers come up, with the Chancellor halving duty to 10%. Rank group is trading up over 6% on the news.

At 3.30pm, the most actively traded blue chip stocks by Interactive Investor clients were as follows: Aviva, Barclays and Ladbrokes.

At 8.20am the most active small/mid caps were Gulf Keystone Petroleum, Ophir Energy and Xcite Energy.

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