Although the rain put a bit of a damper on our New Year firework display, it did nothing to lower spirits and it was a good party - as far as I can recall. Judging by the image which presented itself to me in the bathroom mirror on Monday morning, I guess I must have had a good time! A shame all of the snow disappeared so quickly. The garden looked quite tidy for a while. It was hard to get the brain back into working mode Tuesday but once there I realised how bored I had been getting with the loooong holiday. As all of the family disappeared to foreign (and warmer) climes this Christmas and New Year, it was a quiet time. Missed the grandkids but very little else! One story which had our sleepy little town buzzing over the weekend was goings on going on at the local rugby club where one of the longstanding players (a prop, I believe) who scores an average of one try per season, excelled himself in the New Year's Day game. What makes it noteworthy is that at the previous end-of-season party, when everyone was pulling his leg about his scoring record (as usual), his sporting wife said that the day he scored two tries in a match, she would streak naked across the pitch. And what happened Monday? You guessed it! And nobody had had a camera with them to record the moment! Having seen her in this new light, she is now everyone's favourite person! Now let's see what other joys 2001 can bring. This will be the Chinese year of the snake which, I'm reliably informed, represents the shedding of an old skin for a new one. I hope that means a more permanent change from red to blue on my Monitors!
With little else to cling to, the financial world seemed to pick up on the doom and gloom coming from George Soros on Tuesday when trading restarted. Consequently, it was a bloody scene which confronted us all. The FTSE100 fell away 47 points with the TechMARK suffering even more. Wednesday was even worse with depressing talk of depression echoing across from the US. Another bloodbath! The only possible saviour in sight was Alan Greenspan with hopes that the US Federal Reserve would drop interest rates a quarter point to get some impetus back into the markets. As it happened, the US interest rate was reduced by a half point and the DJIA and NASDAQ roared into recovery mode. (Whether sustainable or not was another question.) Thursday's opening in London was nothing less than spectacular but I think everyone was waiting for the US opening before jumping for joy. As the overnight US performance was pretty neutral and didn't show up any run to profit-taking, Friday morning in London turned out to be quietly positive. Despite some defensive positioning, the FTSE100 managed to end the final session ahead, closing at 6198.
The Bristol & South West Focus Group is holding its next meeting on the evening of Tuesday 13th February in Taunton, Somerset. If you would like the opportunity to meet up with some of your fellow BBers and throw a few questions at the ADVFN contingent who will be there, please either add your name to the SOUTH WEST FOCUS GROUP MEETING thread or contact Stable direct. The more the merrier, so, if the day is free in your diary, do pop along.
The Northern Ireland Focus Group also meets in February at Cookstown on Friday 23rd. Guaranteed to be a good craic! If you are interested, please add your name to the list on Northern Ireland Focus Night or contact Mealiff.
The Weekly BB Review
If you wanted to gauge the excitement of the turnaround in the markets on Thursday morning, you needed to look no further than the Traders' Thread - Thursday, 4 Jan 2001, fired off in brilliant blue by dymaxion at 3:44 in the morning! I had the distinct impression at times during the day that BBers couldn't believe the figures they were seeing before them. dodddy was hoping that the open long position in Bookham Technology which he left on Christmas Eve would prove to be an exercise in far-sightedness but didn't convince anybody, particularly The Player! SpectoAcc came out of hibernation prematurely but Zhivago counselled caution with "....this feels like a party waiting to be spoiled". However everyone did on the day, it certainly proved a welcome break to see so much action and was good exercise for the little grey cells. It was enough to persuade The Player to get up at the crack of dawn to start off TRADERS' THREAD - Friday, January 5th which continued to demonstrate how a more genial market can encourage more genial posting. There was even time for a quick Spanish lesson! Also some good advice from dodddy which he himself follows all the time. :=)
With Vodafone's share performance having such a big impact on the FTSE100, it is always worth following its ups and downs. Latterly more downs than ups. Market Talk regarding VOD from GraceKelly sought to keep up-to-date with the latest machinations, sounding just a tad concerned by a bulk sell transaction on Wednesday. medina and alcide saw the expected sell-off of Orange and Cellnet as having a big bearing on VOD's performance and Dil was, as always, optimistic. paulwells was a "wait-and-see" but bigman couldn't resist the urge to top up. Rumours abound.
Hartest Holdings continued to fall away on massive volumes this week and, despite enthusiasm from adriand and yump who have researched the company pretty thoroughly, there was nothing to suggest a turnaround. Whether the blackbox monitoring device which yump describes in Hartest - back to the laboratory is a winner or not, its existence has either gone unnoticed or has failed to impress. That said, the share price held its own in the closing session.
When CAT began Genomics for 2001- Best picks? pre-Christmas, I don't suppose even he anticipated the rocket-like take-off in the share price. But Genetix Group's introduction to the market saw one of the most impressive starts ever. Demand outstripped supply to the extent that further shares were issued toute suite and were quickly snapped up. For anyone in at the birth, this has been a bigtime winner. Pippin, chester, MALCOLMMM and Alex69 were amongst the early fans. Although the price dipped a bit on Wednesday in the gloom of that day, they soon recommenced their ascent and look good. A good call from CAT.
This week's Breakout Thread (2nd Jan to 5th Jan 2001) began without any thought of the Thursday surge in interest, so the early postings were quickly overtaken by events. However, Jarvis continued to impress JonC and Hawkeye's inclusion of Teather & Greenwood showed up the continued improvement there. Justahunch's McCarthy & Stone also maintained their momentum, as did AMEC from freelander, despite levelling off on Friday. Although unimpressed by the poor volumes traded, Tortoise must have been pleased to see Crest Nicholson begin the new year as they finished the old. Skinny highlighted one of my picks for the year, Lloyds TSB who continue to make progress and are benefitting from the current interest in the Banking sector as a whole. Mealiff, in an exercise to keep Martini cheerful, posted up the latest Retail Stocks - A Bad Christmas, but, Timeliner, PW and JonC (like yours truly) see general progress in selected areas of the sector. Whether Marks & Spencer will be one of the winners is a bigger question. Those people in the business to whom I have spoken recently suggest not. gopher's alternatives like, Matalan appear to be faring better.
TechNet has gone green for 2001 in * USA STOCKS - January 2001 * where you will find all of the latest American gossip. Given the dramatic start to the year on US markets, it is worthy of a look, even if you don't currently deal US stocks. When New York sneezes, London.....
Jarvis looks to be on the move again which should keep The Count's blood pressure up! It was JonC who resurrected the Jarvis-On the Up Track thread this time but chester, biker and lodger were close behind him. Even Bigwig was sounding perky about the prospects. I know The Count will consider any reference to charts irrelevant, but this one certainly looks good at the moment. A 16p @@@@ rise on Friday added more gloss. Maybe this time the charts will beat the tea leaves. Sometimes persistence pays off handsomely. I hope that is the case here. Up another 6.5% Friday and still cruising!
Impact posting of the week must go to Martini for his entry in the News Years Eve & Happy New Year thread. Haven't laughed so much for ages. Just the tonic we needed to get us into the party mood! He was at it again on Thursday in Derek Wild's spoof Interview with ADVFN MD. I guess he got a new toy for Christmas.
Meanwhile, in the Land of the Free.......
With the postings on MotionPoster Research continuing to suggest that MTP are making good progress with their demos, the share price drifted off this week, missing out on the general upturn. alpha1 reported that the upgrade to the system to be trialled in Hong Kong has arrived there but is unable to confirm any dates for the installation. Still Waiting is still waiting and whoops does not anticipate any imminent news due to the company's prolonged holiday break. I'll follow Still Waiting and try to be patient!
Although Screen's progress stuttered a bit when the market hicupped earlier, it seemed to have recovered its composure by the end of the week. nightshift decided it was time for a new thread for the new century (SCREENPLC - THE FACTS.) as the company announced a new contract to supply the Turkish police with the Providia2000 in-car intelligence system and a few of the national newspapers came up with a mention, including a slightly patronising piece in the Mail. (Surprise, surprise!) skater, who works in a similar field, and as a new investor in Screen, sounded unsure whether to take the long-term view or not. In general the advice was to hang on in there. Rowland1955 appeared enthused that they had found a market in such a relatively obscure place. If such a market exists in Turkey then it must exist elsewhere. (I can think of half a dozen Latin American countries where such technology would be welcomed.) And, is a change of broker going to help them expand their horizons? Swingclub (and I) would like to know. I'm with Stable in finding the latest news heartening but I'd like to see some institutional involvement now - which is what a new broker might bring.
JustaHunch may consider himself a novice investor and no TA expert, but he has spared no effort to investigate the possibilities and probabilities for Mentmore Abbey (MEN). The chart is looking extremely good - a perfect candidate for the Breakout thread on the PBB.
What is the mystery at Fortune Oil? As Jasmack says in 9MILLION BUY, "To generate a rise of 22%, that must have been a buy! Something is in the offing.." Whilst the 9m buy was probably a cross trade, there were other relatively big buys about this week - after a period of very little interest. (Over 14m shares changed hands on Friday alone.) With no real news since the interim results at the end of September, one could surmise that someone somewhere knows what will be in the finals. boardman seems to be on the case and I'm sure will keep us informed. For some longer-term holders, like chapman123 this could be a lifeline back to profitability. It is now on my Monitor and watched with interest.
I do like a well crafted appraisal of a company's position to balance out those squiggly line things which Limpsfield Chartist tells me are the sign of the times. For that reason, my Poster of the Week prize this week goes to Dogs Dinner for Another for the fundamentalists SCS Upholstery (SUY). As it happens the chart does make a pretty picture too as chester demonstrated. Congratulations Dogs Dinner! If you will e-mail me a delivery address, I will see that your prize finds it way to you very soon.
Good Hunting!
The ADVFN Who's Who is still growing steadily and is now a quite long list. All entries received to date have been included. If you haven't sent me your bio yet, please drop me a few lines about yourself - a full editing service is provided! No e-mail addresses are published unless specifically requested. 