Oil and minerals bolster FTSE index despite banking and drugmaker lows March 8, 2010 BRITAIN’S top share index hit an 18-month closing high yesterday, led by oil stocks and miners, while drugmakers fell with AstraZeneca pressured after its cancer drug failed in trials. The FTSE 100 ended up 6.96 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 5,606.72, its highest close since 2 September 2008. The index gained 4.6 per cent [...]
VIX SUGGESTS TRADERS ARE NOT WORRIED March 8, 2010 DAVID MORRISON CFD MARKET STRATEGIST, GFT THE first week of March saw stock markets strengthen further, taking us back up through significant retracement levels for a number of major global indices. Investors cheered on a successful Greek bond auction, boosted by the country’s newly-proposed austerity measures. Concerns over sovereign risk contagion have been brushed aside [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING March 7, 2010 THE SUNDAYS The Sunday Telegraph NORTHERN ROCK £400M LOSS Northern Rock made multi-million pound losses for a third year running in 2009, the nationalised lender will reveal this week. The bank will report pre-tax losses of about £400m, analysts believe, a marked improvement on the £1.36bn of losses in 2008. Since the Government bailed it [...]
CITY INDEX March 7, 2010 Q.Dear Josh, how do stop losses work in relation to market gapping? A.I think it’s very important to understand how stop losses actually work, particularly in reference to market gapping. There are key differences between a guaranteed stop loss and a standard stop loss. A standard one is free of charge but it only closes [...]
ROSE MULLS EARLY EXIT March 3, 2010 MARKS & Spencer executive chairman Sir Stuart Rose yesterday said he was likely to leave the company before his expected departure date of July 2011 – although he has no plans for an exit this year. Rose, who will be succeeded as chief executive on 1 May by Marc Bolland, the former chief executive of [...]
WAITING FOR OBAMA TO CALL THE TOP March 1, 2010 DAVID MORRISON CFD MARKET STRATEGIST, GFT ON 3 March 2009, US President Obama became a stock market guru when he delivered the following to investors: “What you’re now seeing is profit and earnings ratios starting to get to the point where buying stocks is a potentially good deal if you’ve got a long-term perspective on [...]
M&S boss in new pressure to cut salary February 28, 2010 MARKS & Spencer’s (M&S’s) joint chief executive and chairman Sir Stuart Rose has seen renewed investor demands to reduce his pay in the latest shareholder salvo against executive pay deals. Rose, who assumed the joint title of chairman and chief executive last year, could see his £1.13m salary reduced by investors after an ongoing and [...]
London’s top shares tumble as oil and mining companies slip February 25, 2010 BRITAIN’S leading shares fell 1.2 per cent yesterday, sliding back in the afternoon in tandem with New York stocks, with miners and oils the main drag as commodity prices fell back pressured by a firmer US dollar. By the close, the FTSE 100 index was 64.69 points lower at 5,278.23, reversing again after Wednesday’s 0.5 [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS February 17, 2010 MORRISON Barclays says Morrison has continued to take market share, has seen profit growth accelerate and has sharply increased its dividend. Yet it was the worst-performing stock in the sector during 2009. To some extent Morrison is seen as a “consensus Buy”, a worthy story but one which lacks triggers which might lead to a [...]
Rose: We had to pay Bolland his £15m golden handshake February 7, 2010 THE outgoing head of Marks & Spencer has defended the £15m “golden hello” offered to his successor Marc Bolland. Sir Stuart Rose, who will be replaced by Bolland in May, said M&S needed to pay the sum in order to remain competitive. He told a Sunday newspaper: “At the end of the day, if you’re [...]