We have our own version of "Uncle Albert" here. An old merchant seaman who has been around the world so many times it must have shrunk. His latest faux pas was the tale he told in the pub Monday night of the time his ship put into La Paz on its way to Rio. It must have been a helluva high tide that day! A good meeting with the South West Focus Group in Taunton on Tuesday evening, brought a call for more training to be based in the area. There should soon be another Success Events course in the SW which will be useful. Travel is still quite erratic between here and London. A local venue will make it easier for we yokels to keep up. Enough sunshine here this week to tempt us into starting some genuine gardening activity and clearing away the brash for Spring planting. So my back hurts as much as my head now! And the current phase of building work in the house is due to finish next Tuesday so we might be able to get back to living like civilised beings by the end of next week. Oh joy!
There was no sign on Monday of the carnage to come as the FTSE100 gained 77 points with telecom and technology stocks having a better time of it than of late. It was all change on Tuesday, largely sparked off by the disappointing debut of Orange which had a domino effect. News that inflation was at a record low did nothing to stem the flow and profit-taking pushed the leading indices into the red. Wednesday saw the St. Valentine's Day massacre as screens across the board turned red. Again it was the telecom and technology shares which took the biggest hammering, reversing their earlier mini-revival. The FTSE100 gave up 52 points. A different story on Thursday, with blue the dominant colour on most screens. That and a resurgence in the ADVFN share price gave a bit of a buzz to the day on the BB. Friday @@@@
A very social week on the BB. Maybe something to do with the fact that the ADVFN share price took a turn for the better - or maybe down to a successful SW Focus Group meeting in Taunton on Tuesday and the latest in dodddy and Smellie's extravaganzas in London on Thursday. The latter seems to have caused the more headaches! Especially for Bullshare who appears to have a permanent ringing in his ears. It was a quiet start to Friday morning as the various hangovers kicked in. The next social event due is the meeting of the intrepid mountineers of East Anglia who get together next Thursday (22nd February) in Cambridge. (East Anglian Mountain Rescue Dinner). I'm sure there will be room for a few more if you are interested.
The Weekly BB Review
It didn't take long for Balthazar B to pick up on the renewed interest in Aquarius Platinum (AQP) following a glowing report from brokers Williams de Broe. MALCOLMMM was not far behind. With platinum finding a new market in the car industry - a component of catalytic converters, it no longers relies entirely on the jewellery trade for its custom. Whether the share price will ever get close to 1100p is doubtful but the bounce back over 330p this week was certainly encouraging. A bit of profit-taking took the gloss off on Friday but it was still a good week for AQP fans with suggestions of more to come.
For a long time Crowman has been trying to drum up interest in KIER GROUP (KIE) without much success, although Delboy002 and crocodile also tried in vain in an earlier thread which fizzled out. (KIER Group......sounds too good to be true....any thoughts?) This week saw a sharp turn northwards which was maintained. If the shares can ticking up from 350p then the sky is the limit. Finished Friday at 355p bid.
After a long time in the wilderness, threeW.net struck an oasis this week, much to the delight of The Count and other long-suffering holders. TWN - a STRONG growth story in fast growing B2B sector! tells the story. tightfist was there to see lift-off but probably didn't pick up any TC brownie points with his description of the company as "...bombed out...."! Hotei and biker were keen to find out when the results would be published but (at the time of writing ) no date had been shown. Imminent or early next week is about as close as anyone got. One of the fears is that the price might dip again on profit-taking following results - no matter how encouraging they are. For the sake of JonC, acropolis and all of the others who have stuck with it, I sincerely hope The Count's target of 100p is reached way within his modest timescale. The shares gave up a litle of the gain early on Friday but still came good in the final session. The run is far from over.
NORD ANGLIA - Unloved And Undervalued (NAE) has long been a misnomer as the share price has shown steady progress for quite a while now. A particularly good week, this week, as the stock overhang appeared to have gone and MMs were in short supply. On Monday Alex69 could hardly keep up with progress as the price charged up to his targets almost as he typed. cossie was a tad upset that Sharecast considered them expensive. By Tuesday, the 200p mark was well in sight at open and breeched shortly after. Dil was probably miffed to have to go to work and miss some of the fun but he was confident that there was much more to come. Cat was also purring rather loudly. jhurbanek was in wind-up mode, suggesting a dip back below 200p might be on the cards. There was a blip as a bout of tree-shaking tried to tempt some sellers but by Friday it was back on track and looking good. Dil has been praising the potential of NAE for about six months on this thread. It is good to see the faith rewarded so handsomely. I'm sure there is still more upside yet. 250p seems a very modest target given the current momentum and the high-profile education services currently enjoys. They finished the week a healthy 212p bid.
The same gang are currently involved heavily in Hacas - one for the crown jewels (HCS) and expecting big things although the share price didn't manage to recoup its losses of last week. Still worth keeping an eye on.
Thistle Hotels has long been a subject of speculation - Thistle Hotels - will it or wont it be taken over .... and the share price has reacted accordingly, pushing on past the 160p mark this week. M.T.Glass sees a possible battle between Nomura and Bass emerging. As the previous bid of 200p was dismissed out-of-hand, the current price still looks as though it leaves a lot of leeway for profit, despite the strong run recently. Many thanks to nod for explaining the tangled web of ownership of Brierley Investments.
Remember Stocks which will halve by the end of Feb01 which Gausie started as a bit of fun? The initial reaction, I recall, was that it was a much better long selection than short. The process turned into a full-blown competition (with charity in mind) and SpiceBoy kindly lent his support and technical expertise into producing a tracking system for the entrants. The results can be picked up on his site - (ADVFN Shorters Challenge. The competition was re-timed to coincide with the big night out and produced a worthy winner in moonblue who is donating the prize fund to SKCV - Street Kids Community Villages. The only other entrant to end up on the right side was the wah who deserves praise too. I wonder who came bottom of the list! An excellent effort guys and a great cause.
Well, it looks as though reading the runes and casting the chicken bones is out now! thatsmart has introduced Financial Astrology. Rather than write-off the reasoning out-of-hand, StewJames and I know nothing were, at least, willing to listen. Kayak was, perhaps, the biggest sceptic but titus did some swotting and was prepared to listen (but more keen on being the first to mention Uranus!) The postings from thatsmart following these interchanges were enough to get me interested, although I must admit to a being a little cynical about the process - not surprising given my general distrust of charts as a whole. However, I'll give it until February 26th and 28th before making up my mind. If the TechMARK rises when Mercury goes direct, then I will sell the day after before it gets a chance to quincunx Saturn and square Pluto. I hope some of that means something to someone out there. Pick up the thread. It may make more sense than some of Limpy's lectures! ;=)
The insomiacs on the BB will know that Sardine has become infamous for telling us all to "Go to bed!" when he has decided enough is enough. In "Go to bed" said Sardine, Trawler has suggested a competition to be built around it. Dil and I look to be leading at the moment. the wah's suggestion of the Woolmark and SpiceBoy's Welsh Flock Exchange as suggestions in response to the rumour that Plaid Cymru want to open a local stock exchange in Wales get my vote for quick quips of the week. ;=) Let's hope this new competition is a bit more successful than that launched this week by The Times and Bloomberg which ended up a disaster.
Meanwhile, in the Land of the Free.......
Pizza was back on the menu this week in domino's pizza (DOM) with Jellytots, kjc and Kevin prescott contemplating the toppings. The share price had bounced its way nicely over the 50p mark on Thursday before pulling back the following day to end at 45p bid. (Results are scheduled for publication on 28th February.) As Pizza Express also posted good gains early in the week (without BB comment), maybe it was a generic thing. Have I missed some news somewhere? Maybe they have discovered new aphrodisiac powers in anchovies or spicy beef! ;=) Both down on Friday - tastes change very quickly!
Ottakars going to £10 QUICK ( InterX has not had the best of times this year but Wednesday's announcement of the resignation of the CEO and a warning note from the Board, sent them plummeting. As nicolsonmark36 had gone to the trouble of eliciting from the company that interim results would be published in early March in InterX looks to be a 'runner', it was a bit of a shock (to put it mildly) when supersec posted the damning RNS news item. Suddenly it was a shorter's paradise. cheve's hope for some support around 300p was sadly adrift, with even long-term backer of the share, Tom Winnifrith, quickly reversing his opinion from bullish to SELL! (I wonder when he sold his?) Dorsey was surprisingly philosophical in view of the extent of the damage - "...as they say...sh*t happens..." - but others were a little less able to take in the extent of the fall. That it happened at all is bad news but to pick the worst possible day when the whole big board was turning red was disastrous. A few bottom fishers appeared to slow the fall on Thursday and Friday but there was nothing to stop it sliding further. Now at a sad 175p bid, it is going to take a while before confidence enough returns to reverse the trend. Even if the results in March are super (which appears unlikely), it is a long way back to the opening level of the week. I hope nobody had their mortgage on this one. For those tempted, take care when looking for an entry point.
Instead of awarding a Poster of the Week prize this week (there were too many to choose from!), I have decided to award the equivalent to moonblue's charity - SKCV - Street Kids Community Villages. If you can let me have an address moonblue, I will be happy to forward you a cheque. Congratulations on winning the competition and well done on finding such a worthwhile cause. The ADVFN Who's Who is still growing and is now a quite long list. 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.
Good Hunting!