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. [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
THE TIPSTER WATCH THOSE RESISTANCE LEVELS May 17, 2009 HOPES of the recovery rally continuing apace were dashed on Friday when the FTSE 100 closed down, putting last week’s losses at 1.9 per cent. The blue-chip index has struggled to stay consistently above the 4,400 mark, a key psychological barrier that the market will continue to target this week. Any strong break through resistance [...]
Beware green shoots: the bears will still beat the bulls May 17, 2009 THE rally in global stock markets appears to have hit a lull, with the Dow falling over 3.5 per cent last week and the FTSE taking a hit on the week for the first time in a month, down nearly 100 points. We’ve a week ahead of earnings news for UK companies and any disappointment [...]