RSS feedFTSE 100
’Essar fail
Essar Energy shares trade in London at 108p. It’s down as much as 37 per cent on the day, making it a contender for the worst FTSE 100-eligible flotation ever.
(At pixel time.)
Essar Energy stepped straight into the FTSE 100 after floating in May 2010 at 420p (and had to cut its original price at the time).
You’ve paid how much? – LSE edition
A few years back, the FSA warned banks to be careful about their choice of code words in M&A deals:
Use appropriate code names to disguise the identities of relevant parties. This only works if the code names are sufficiently different from the names of the relevant parties so their real identities cannot be determined.
Glencore and big squeeze
Buying shares in a company ahead of an index re-weighting is rarely a good idea but that hasn’t stopped brokers pushing Glencore ahead of November 24th – the day the lock-up agreement with cornerstone investors expires.
[Something for the weekend] Let’s have the FTUK index (and the T-shirt)
Goodhart’s Law, as refined, states that when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. Charles Goodhart coined it (the law, rather than anything else) at the Bank of England. At the time the Bank was targetting M3,
FTSE asks the free float question
What is the minimum amount of a company’s shares that should be freely floated if that company is incorporated in the UK and wants to join the FTSE’s UK indices?
A simple question, but a contentious one.
A historian’s view of the UK stock market
FT Alphaville has a soft spot for historians.
Not only because of their services to tweed and elbow patches, but also because they offer refreshingly long-term views (a welcome change from the short-termism of many market commentators).
Eurofright
OK, volumes are seriously low and it’s Labor Day in the States. On the other hand…
Banks bore the brunt at pixel time with the Italian banks again suspended for excessive volatility. Anyone remember
Fundamental investing
To those who say the stock market is nothing more than a casino we present the following:
Add to that Thursday’s 192 point swing…
… and we get the big dipper (which has been seen in other stock market constellations)
Perhaps it would be best if the equity market went on holiday for the rest of August.
Official: FTSE 100 in bear market
Low on Tuesday at pixel time of 4855.35 = off 20 per cent from the FTSE 100′s February 2011 high of 6091.33:
MSCI All-World not far off a bear market either. This sucker’s going planetary. Update (0938 UK time):
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Monday,
- FTSE 100 seen down 84 points – IG Index.
- Rio Tinto and Mitsubishi launch $1.5bn buyout offer for Coal & Allied — statement.
- Bid target Evolution Group acquires BNP Paribas Private Investment Management — statement.
Correction
RTRS – U.K.’S FTSE 100 INDEX FALLS 10% FROM FEBRUARY HIGH
Dead cat splat
Latest ‘risk on’ rally has been pronounced dead after seven hours in the UK…
… and just 30 minutes on the other side of the Atlantic, following some real news…
… a weak ISM report that has added to concerns about the faltering US economic ‘recovery’:
Sell in May and go away and come back on…
….. err Independence Day.
That seems to be the view at several big houses, which have either upgraded equities on Monday or urged their clients to buy in the wake of last weeks’ powerful rally.
Deutsche Bank:
Glencore debuts… [updated]
Up 3 per cent from the IPO price of 530p at pixel time and trading on a conditional basis — chart via Reuters:
Apparently they’re hoping for a 5-10 per cent rise on the first day…
Update — Aargh.
The £160m FTSE 100 company
The highlight of the latest FTSE reshuffle?
The almost certain promotion to the FTSE 100 of an investment adviser that generated sales of just £160m last year.
Based on Tuesday’s closing prices,
FTSE reshuffle runners and riders
FTSE reshuffle time is almost upon us — the results are due next Wednesday based on Tuesday’s closing prices.
So here’s a quick run down of who will be leaving and joining London’s various leading indices.
The FTSE 100 global growth index
Thursday’s price action in London:
Confirmation (if any were needed) that the FTSE 100, with its very heavy weighting of resources stocks, is now just an option on global growth.
So if investors
Ashes to Ashes for the UK stock market?
It’s 24 years since England last tasted cricketing success in the Ashes down under and to mark this historic event we present some spurious stock market correlation via Shore Capital strategist Gerard Lane.
The fabulous Footsie
RTRS-BRITAIN’S FTSE 100 <.FTSE> INDEX HITS 6,000-MARK FOR FIRST TIME SINCE JUNE 2008
Sadly it didn’t manage to close there.
Still, there’s always tomorrow.
The luck of Lloyds
Not good news for Lloyds Banking Group on Friday.
A regulatory filing from the bank reveals that its particularly nasty case of ‘Irish exposure’ syndrome could be worsening.
From the RNS:
Since the release of its Interim Management Statement on 2 November 2010,
Ding dong! merrily on high
6 per cent and rising….
Anthony Bolton, manager Fidelity’s China Special Situations Fund, on what lies behind December’s stock market rally:
During the last few weeks the global bull market appears to have resumed.
Better Paid
Typical. You can clear out staff, send in a new chief executive and make a massive shift to safer operations — but in the end, floating the possibility that you’ll restore the dividend is what really moves you up in the market:
What are stock index future curves telling us?
Has anyone else noticed that stock index futures fell into backwardation just after the Lehman crisis?
Well, we for one couldn’t find any commentary on it.
Accordingly we present the time-spreads for the FTSE,
Risk off, tin hat on
The risk switch was firmly flicked to “off” on Tuesday afternoon, following weaker than expected US housing data. Much weaker than expected. Sales of existing homes slumped to their lowest level on record in July according to the National Association of Realtors.