It’s fierce out there. There’s a selling frenzy.
HBOS under the cosh again Wednesday afternoon – off 24 per cent at 135p towards the close of trading in London. In and out of the LSE’s auction process, whereby stocks that gap get taken off the order board temporarily.
Imagine where their price might be if it wasn’t in merger talks?
The market is betting, of course, that even if the government tears up competition policy and jails the heads of the OFT and the Competition Commission, European regulators will go ballistic.
Asked to bet whether this is a Merrill or Lehman situation, most people are going one way.
The UK Treasury has again botched the rescue of a British bank. And this time its not some upstart player gorging itself on synthetic funding. It’s the Halifax and The Bank of Scotland – a central pillar of the British housing market. Remember: housing is the spine of the British public’s balance sheet.
Resignations anyone?
Today’s trading:
