Oil firms are a healthy addition to a portfolio March 3, 2010 THERE is a risk that once a company reaches a certain size it will over-stretch itself and as a result become bloated and less efficient. For the last two and a half years Anthony Hayward has successfully steered BP, the oil company he commands, away from this course. And, earlier this week he announced that [...]
INVESTORS’ GLOSSARY March 3, 2010 BOLLINGER BANDS Bollinger bands are a technical analysis tool that was invented by trader John Bollinger in the 1980s. A Bollinger band consists of upper, middle and lower bands that are plotted two standard deviations away from the moving average of the stock price. These bands are a good indicator of whether a stock price [...]
LISTED PRODUCT NEWS March 3, 2010 COMMODITY EXPOSURE Investors can get easy access to a wide range of global ETF products courtesy of iShares. The provider now offers ETFs on the MSCI South African, Australian and Canadian stock indices. All of these countries have large quantities of natural resources, and using ETFs to trade their local stock indices is a good [...]
The new style of job applications March 3, 2010 MOVING up the career ladder doesn’t just depend on getting good results – it’s about getting good contacts too. Managing your network is the best way to find new openings, and there are iPhone tools to help you do it. Firstly, if you aren’t already signed up to LinkedIn, you really should be. The professional [...]
Gains in banking shares lead the FTSE to a six-week high March 2, 2010 BRITAIN’S top share index hit a six-week closing high yesterday and rose for a third straight session, led by banks with HSBC firmer after the previous session’s post results sell-off. The FTSE 100 closed up 78.12 points, or 1.45 per cent, at 5,484.06, its highest closing level since January 19, after climbing 1 per cent [...]
Investors growing wary over job data March 2, 2010 US stocks ended slightly higher yesterday as mergers and acquisitions supported selected sectors, but investors pulled back from recent gains in some big-cap technology and bank shares. The S&P 500 has risen for eight of the past 11 trading days, but there were signs of fatigue as investors grew cautious in advance of key employment [...]
QE means the pound has further to fall this year March 2, 2010 EVER since Dubai plunged into crisis last November, the question of which indebted sovereign state would be next to topple has been uppermost in investors’ minds. Greece – the likeliest suspect at the time of the Dubai crisis – quickly descended into its own fiscal turmoil at the start of 2010, while the effect of [...]
Eastern promise for traders in Turkey March 2, 2010 ONE consequence of the Greek debt crisis has been a re-ordering of global risk sentiment. The problems plaguing the economies of southern Europe, including Greece and Spain, have brought into sharp relief the budget deficits burdening Western economies such as the UK, the US and Europe, where growth is expected to remain sluggish and interest [...]
POUND COULD HIT PARITY WITH DOLLAR March 2, 2010 BORIS SCHLOSSBERG DIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT LAST week I was on CNBC Europe when a viewer asked – will the euro go to parity against the dollar? I was surprised by the question, replying that despite the current turmoil in the Eurozone, such talk was a bit premature and reminded the audience that less [...]
THE TIPSTER March 2, 2010 WITH all attention on the plunging pound this week, the euro has been relatively quiet. But euro-US dollar could come back to centre stage since the clock is ticking for the Greek government to demonstrate that it’s taking effective steps to reduce its huge debt. Prime Minister Papandreou meets Angela Merkel of Germany on Friday [...]