Market report: NMC Health falls as it mistakenly gets caught up in muddy waters

It may not have been the intended target, NMCHealthfallsasitmistakenlygetscaughtupin  butNMC Healthended up as collateral damage from Muddy Waters Research’s attack on litigation funder Burford Capital.

The Abu Dhabi-based hospital operator’s share ended off just over 11pc, having fallen 6pc on rumours it was the planned target of Muddy Waters’s report.

A slide that began in the aftermath of Muddy Waters’s tweet teasing the report, which promised a release at “8am London time”, turned into a full-blown drop, dragging the company’s share price to a two-year low after a year of steady decline. It fell 258p to £20.

Burford dropped catastrophically, by as much as 64pc, which resulted in billions of pounds being wiped off its share cap after Muddy Waters said it “is a perfect storm for an accounting fiasco” and that its “governance structures are laughter-inducing”.

Burford pre-emptively kicked back against the report, criticising Muddy Waters’s tactics. But it wasn’t enough to stop its shares sliding 516p to 605p.

Flutter Entertainment, the parent of betting shops Paddy Power and Betfair, was the biggest climber on the blue-chip index, rising 372p to £66.

Jefferies analysts said Flutter’s “valuation is relatively high when compared to peers”, but that the difference was justified by its “growth prospects and balance sheet”.