A fairly quiet week on the markets generally this week - maybe everyone watching tennis in the hope that our lone star might achieve at Wimbledon what our twenty something prima donnas of the soccer world couldn't in Benelux and actually win something! The Test Match against the Windies had a reverse pattern to the financial markets, starting in pretty awful fashion but getting slightly better as the match wore on. Holland kindly managed to find a way to allow Italy through to the final of Euro2000 to face "Les Bleus" who are only there themselves courtesy of a last minute gift by Spain.
In the financial world, the US barometer fluctuated enough to cause a few ripples across the Atlantic with a good recovery early on from last week's poor finish. It all petered out midweek as analysts waited for the Fed to make public its deliberations on interest rates. Here, Freeserve went into freefall as T-Online pulled out of talks and biotechs got a shot in the arm from the publicity surrounding the Genome project. Chicken Run (the movie) gave Character Group a (temporary?) new lease of life. US interest rates remained static, which created no surprises and a reported increase in UK consumer borrowing spooked the London marketeers into thinking that maybe it was more likely that interest rates would rise here first. What a week!
Chorion began bubbling up on increased volumes this week, spotted by nelson, who dredged up an old thread, Chorion looking really bullish which is probably overstating the case now. However, the signals are all there and increased volume on no news (or rumour) often means that something is under way. That might persuade KDC to have another look. Strange how this all coincides with a re-run of an old Poirot episode on TV at the weekend. Maybe that jogged someone's memory about the Agatha Christie rights! Early promise died out at the end of the week and Friday saw the share price fall away slightly as the volumes dried up.
From gigabytes to gaming in one fell swoop, Rodime, flushed with their successful battle with Seagate which presented them with a big pot of money to invest, decided to go for broke with a complete change of strategy and bought Littlewoods Leisure. The total cost will be part-funded by selling a little of the Rodime soul to Littlewoods and raising a few quid via a rights issue and subscription. Wickhams Fancy, quick to leap on any interesting snippets from North of the border, was first to break the news in Rodime Roars to Profit. yodekid seemed a tad disappointed to start with but a quick reflection on the size of the online gambling market, persuaded him that this was a marginally better deal than buying (say) Calluna!
finao was surprisingly philosophical going into the weekend despite a baaaaaaad experience with Independent Energy Holdings. Anon demonstrated the present advantages of buying in the US where the spreads at least give you a fighting chance of clearing a profit. (US ticker symbol = INDYY) He also reproduced some good detail from a recently published report which suggests that there is still value in the energy sector. His "take care" comments are also worth remembering. I guess this is one of the cases where Level 2 data would be a great help if it allowed a better view of the MM's order books. For the full SP, take a look at Lost me shirt (saved a few buttons).
Teather & Greenwood - Results Way Ahead Of Forecasts had hawkeye wondering just what a company has to do to get their shares rising again. A report from TheStreet suggested that as they hadn't suffered as much as some of their counterparts during the downturn, there was less ground to make up which was why nothing mch happened. A bonus share issue and a move from AIM to main market will probably do them good but I think it will take an imaginative new product or strategic plan to really get them going. There's limited upside for broking services these days. (Teather & Greenwood) This one also featured in the Hot Stocks thread thanks to Dil, ably assisted by The Real Deal.
Hot Stocks week commencing 26/06/00 threw up a few very interesting opportunities this week, started by Wildrover with Soco International which looks as though it may have found a new support level. lucasb saw some opportunities in the Cambridge Antibody chart and, although they started the week off brightly enough, they tailed away later in the general downturn. Still worth tracking. Problems with handling share splits within the charting system still causes some grief, as Smallchange found to his consternation. DocProc and hawkeye were quick to help him out with IS Solutions but there was no volume in the week to create any price movement. A similar story for Dougal's Imagination Technologies, despite the announcement of their introduction of a revolutionary new graphics accelerator (whatever that might be!). Unfortunately, this news was overshadowed by other major announcements from the Intel camp and the shares took a bit of a beating - probably not helped by the shorting fraternity like PW. If Limpsfield Chartist can tear himself away from his new toy for a moment, it would be interesting to hear his latest assessment of IMG's chances. Best call was probably from gausie who posted a very pretty chart of Chloride Group which had a perfect end to the week. Maybe another big deal on the way?
Well, Limpy has his new toy - Something No Serious Investor Should Be Without - but I'm a bit underawed at the style of the thing. As he was noticeably quiet on the BB after posting the pic, I can only assume he took it outside to show his neighbours and it flew away with him! Oh well, what's another chartist, one way or the other!
No Bulletin Board worth its salt is complete with a running thread on the subject of Capital Gains - Tax query. This is a bigggggg subject and has been made no more easy to understand since Chancellor Prudence Brown made his latest changes to the rules. I'm happy to leave all that to my accountant. The relevant IR document is now available online. IR Leaflet CGT1 The way things are going right now, I'll be happy just to have some CGT to pay!
Vertigo renowned developer of the Stock History software analysis tool and mountaineer extraordinaire, has now added an off-line BB browser facility to the main offering. Although with free/cheap internet access now so prevelant, this application may have more limited attraction than in the past, on weekends such as this when the ADVFN system is out of service for some time while undergoing an upgrade, it can be a positive Godsend. According to Vertigo the new function is also quicker to browse the BB online, although it won't pick up postings as they happen. A lot of blood, sweat and tears has gone into to developing this set and I think it is definitely worth a look. StockHistory: Offline BB reader and poster now available.
By the way this thread is developing, DocProc is turning into quite a revolutionary - 1st of the month Petrol Boycott - but there are some doubters amongst the audience too. Some of those favourably placed like Crocodile ( en France - whenever he can) and Mealiff, (in Northern Ireland - where he can always pop over the border for a fill-up) may not be too concerned and Spin doctor may think it is merely a publicity stunt, but the campaign is gathering pace. A great graph reproduced by Pooh shows that pre-tax prices in the UK are lower than all but a handful of countries. Clueless is all for us moving to the US en bloc because everything seems cheaper but, as Addo points out, there are drawbacks to that idea! Clem seems to think we should all do our bit by paying as much tax as possible to ensure our Government is housed as luxuriously as possible and we should keep the poor people off the roads so that he and his wealthy chums can have them to themselves. muzza rightly pointed out that it is the little guys who will suffer most from a boycott. As my gas guzzler has just gone in for repair (leaving me with something like Noddy's little car to play with for a weeek), I am immediately joining the cause. Doc, what have you started!
Meanwhile, in the land of the Free.......
Andyble added a link to the latest news on Pace Micro Technology on a thread, so far exclusively maintained by himself and deshulme. I thought there would have been more interest in Pace Micro Future is Digital. Maybe after the recent good performance, there will be.
I'm pleased that no-one was tempted to pile into WILink.com following the mass mailing which seems to have landed on everyone's doormat this week. WILink.com Inc to Knutsford asked the question and the limited response was negative. Like jasaniman, I flipped my letter straight into the bin - even hit it first time! This one just doesn't sound right and smacks of "quick buck" to me - but only for the existing owners.
goodfella gave some enlightening and rational thinking on the limit of the potential for Character Group following the hype surrounding licensing rights to Chicken Run spin-offs in Character group a word of caution. Maybe saved rabidcat and a few others getting carried away. The price rise this week reflected the novelty of the movie and its successful launch. As PW is always telling me - commercial reality always dawns eventually. Make money on this one while you can but be ready to bail out when it becomes evident that there is no immediate commercial benefit for CCT. For then it will fall much more quickly than it rose.
Finally, my Thread of the Week comes from the Free BB. How do you pick your stock plays? A simple question from sandy00 - do you research ? - brought some good constructive comment from a variety of sources. Of course we all do heaps of research all of the time and never, ever act on tips and BB ramps. Do we? Well, actually, I think we are all guilty of being "influenced" at some time or other by words on a Bulletin Board or in a newspaper or magazine. But that should be just an opening and should be quickly followed by research and analysis before forming any basis for a buy/sell decision. Some sound advice and comment here from Andyble, belsizepark and PeeTee, amongst others. The truth is out there - but it is not always immediately obvious as such. A broad streak of cynicism is healthy thing in my investment book.
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