Banks lead the FTSE higher and bulls reboot interest in sofware companies May 18, 2009 THE FTSE 100 sprung to life yesterday, driven by banks which were led higher by confirmation of Lloyds Banking Group’s rights issue and the announcement that Sir Victor Blank would step down as its chairman. The index erased almost half of last week’s losses, closing 2.3 per cent, or 98.34 points, higher at 4,446.45 points. [...]
Oversupply will dictate crude’s price far more than sentiment May 18, 2009 LAST week, oil prices touched the $60-a-barrel mark, almost double the low of $32 that they were in February. A reason to be cheerful? The International Energy Agency (IEA) clearly thought so last Tuesday, when its executive director Nobuo Tanaka indicated that the IEA was unlikely to reduce its demand forecast for 2009. But that opinion [...]
OUTLOOK IS GRIM FOR THE NEW SICK MAN OF EUROPE May 18, 2009 FOR those traders stubbornly sticking with short FTSE positions from the sub-4,000 mark, last week’s profit-taking will have been a welcome relief. After the past few months of almost uninterrupted rallies in shares and green shoots spurring an 800-plus point bounce in the FTSE, those resolute bears must have been close to folding. That’s fine [...]
EUROPEAN REPORT May 18, 2009 EUROPEAN equities closed higher yesterday as financial stocks climbed on hopes a recession in top global economies was abating, while energy shares tracked higher crude oil prices. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares closed 2.4 per cent higher at 859.88 points after falling as low as 827.32. The index, which slumped 45 per [...]
SPOTLIGHT ON SMALL CAPS May 18, 2009 SMALL cap stocks continued their slow rally yesterday, with the FTSE small cap index adding 0.39 per cent to 2,241 points and the Aim 100 rising 0.17 per cent to 2219. Counter-terrorism and intruder prevention specialist Eruma added over a quarter of its value to 1.75p after announcing it had signed a contract for over [...]
Lowe’s results improve Wall Street’s retail mood May 18, 2009 US STOCKS rallied yesterday as better-than-expected results from the number two US home improvement retailer, Lowe’s, helped spark broad-based buying on hopes the recession is easing and consumer spending is stabilising. Investors’ optimism extended to sectors closely aligned with economic growth, including homebuilders, banks, energy companies and retailers. Positive broker comments on Bank of America, [...]
MP expenses scandal has cut general election odds May 17, 2009 THERE is nothing like a good political scandal to get the blood flowing. Watching Question Time last week was a bit like watching Doctor Who when you were a child – best done from behind the sofa and through the fingers. Never has there been so much fury against politicians. The atmosphere is even worse [...]
Beware green shoots: the bears will still beat the bulls May 17, 2009 THE fragility of the “green shoots” recovery theory that has seen the FTSE 100 rise almost 30 per cent since its 9 March low, came to a shuddering halt last week as it lost 2.6 per cent, breaking its five-week winning streak. The blue chip index is now stuck in the middle of a tug [...]
Index reshuffle is chance to make a substantial profit May 17, 2009 INDEX reshuffles, at least in Britain’s FTSE indices, don’t tend to spark much more than some token interest among the trading community. The process is deliberately as transparent as possible and well publicised in advance in order to minimise any dramatic share price movements ahead of the rejig. Unfortunately for spread betters looking to capitalise [...]
BETTER DATA DOESN’T MEAN A RECOVERY May 17, 2009 CONFUSION between better-than-expected data and good data – and there is a huge distinction between the two – may have made traders over-optimistic about the pace of recovery. But the markets crashed back down to earth last week as investors started to doubt whether there had been any green shoots at all. To be fair, [...]