Wednesday 6 February
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"I support gay marriage. I believe they have a right to be as miserable as the rest of us."
Kinky Friedman
THIS MORNING IN LONDON
FTSE 100
6,304.61
21.85 0.35%
FTSE 250
13,354.43
111.66 0.84%
FTSE 350
3,379.17
14.01 0.42%
FTSE All Share
3,310.76
13.59 0.41%
AIM 100
3,320.17
5.42 0.16%
AIM All Share
742.14
1.2 0.16%
12:45 pm
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Hello Share Folk,
You may have noticed that there is the usual game going on. The one that is often under way in Crazy land when not much is happening on the economic front.
This game is the sudden sell-off of a load of shares to bring down the value of stock. Then buy it back cheaper than it was. Then make a bit more money. Then take profits and bring the Footsie and the Dow back a bit. Then pile in until share prices rise – and then sell.
CLICK HERE for the full article
ON THE BLOG
AIM needs the ISA – NOW!
By Michael Crockett,
Editor of AimZine – the magazine section of the Investor’s Champion website.
In his Autumn Statement George Osborne said that the government would consult on allowing AIM shares to be held in Stocks and Shares ISAs and most press commentators are expecting that AIM shares will finally be allowed into ISAs, probably in April 2014
Perhaps the government does not think that including AIM shares in ISAs is going to be an important weapon in fighting this “economic equivalent of war”. Let us take a look at some figures and consider the arguments...
CLICK HERE for the full article
THIS MORNING IN LONDON
Stocks undaunted ahead of central banks
The Footsie has begun the day with a moderate move higher, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street and in Tokyo.
The latter came in response to news that Bank of Japan Governor, Masaaki Shirakawa, will step down on March 19th, almost three weeks ahead of schedule, which some observers interpreted as favouring the new Prime Minister's calls for a more aggressive monetary policy.
All of the above comes ahead of tomorrow's testimony by Mark Carney before the Treasury Select Committee and policy meetings at the Bank of England and the European Central Bank.
Not to be lost sight of, investors are also watching what appear to be signs of division between France and southern Europe, on the one hand, and Germany and the UK on the other, ahead of tomorrow's European Council. European leaders are expected to try to find an agreement on the European Budget for 2014-2020.
Back in the UK, the Halifax house price survey this morning showed that house prices fell slightly in January, by 0.2% month-on-month, after reporting strong increases during the previous two months.
Overall shop price inflation fell to 0.6% year-on-year in January after a reading of 1.5% in December, the lowest shop price inflation since November 2009, when it was 0.2%.
FTSE 100: Keep them coming says Hargreaves
In UK company news, financial service company Hargreaves Lansdown posted record revenues and profits for the last half of 2012 driven by a boost in client numbers.
Metal mining company Eurasian Natural Resources has acknowledged that its aluminium division operated below capacity in the fourth quarter of the year, whilst production of saleable copper declined against the corresponding period in the previous year. Notwithstanding the above, the majority of Eurasian Natural Resources' business areas saw growth in production and operating performance.
Shares in Schroders are rising strongly following an upgrade out of analysts at Morgan Stanley, to overweight.
Unilever, on the other hand, is leading losers this morning after going ex-dividend.
ARM Holdings is off a tad following yesterday's surge and after at least three brokers (Investec, UBS and JP Morgan) opted to retain their 'neutral' rating on the stock.
RBS has announced that it is in late stage settlement discussions with regulators and that it will update the market 'shortly', although it sees significant penalties and sanctions.
FTSE 250: S Atkins trading 'in line'
Engineering and product management consultancy Atkins on Wednesday said it was trading in line with expectations despite challenging market conditions. The FTSE 250 company has faced difficult trading conditions over the past three months, particularly in North America, according to a business update.
International home emergency business HomeServe has reported that it expects its New Markets segment to report a fiscal year 2013 operating loss of approximately £5.5m, representing a 61.8% rise compared to the fiscal year 2012, when the business reported a £3.4m loss.
CLICK HERE FOR THE DAY'S FASTEST MOVING STOCKS
WHAT THE BROKERS SAY
JP Morgan reiterated its 'neutral' rating on ARM Holdings after the British semiconductor and software design company revealed increased revenues and profits for the fourth quarter. The target price was raised to 625p from 540p.
Credit Suisse has retained its 'outperform' rating and 400p target price for mining giant Eurasian Natural Resources Corp (ENRC), saying that the stock could race past 500p on 'successful growth delivery'.
Ahead of earnings season for insurance stocks, Nomura has reviewed its coverage on the non-life sub-sector, highlighting Admiral as its top pick whilst upgrading its rating for Direct Line and downgrading RSA.
With Smith & Nephew having reached Panmure Gordon's target price, the broker has downgraded the stock from 'buy' to 'hold' despite it remaining bullish for the group's long-term outlook.
Click here for the rest of the broker recommendations
THE LATEST ON THE CRAZY BOARD
The top 5 hot company threads on the Bulletin Board:
Fenner PLC
Barratt Developments (BDEV)
GKN
ZOLTAV RESOURCES INC(ZOL)-CrosbyAM,now Abramovich!
Wolfson Microelectronics PLC (WLF)
Click here to discuss shares with other ShareCrazy members
Regards,
ShareCrazy
No comments:
Post a Comment