Leading shares in the UK closed higher Monday after the early handover of power to the Iraqi interim government lent a bullish air to trading on Wall Street this afternoon, dealers said.

The FTSE 100 closed up 24.6 points at 4518.7, after rallying to a near two month high of 4,545.1 earlier in the session.

All the wider indices were higher, while volumes were light; just 2.38 bln shares changed hands by mid afternoon.

Equity markets were further buoyed by another fall in the price of crude oil, on news that Iraq production has increased and Norwegian oilfields returned to normal as the government intervened to end an eight-day strike.

However --- Why is there always a however when it comes to the Markets?

In the USA Stocks backed off their highs heading into Monday's late session following an initial push that was triggered by the earlier-than-expected handover of authority in Iraq.

A positive reading in U.S. consumer spending also helped the morning charge, but with under an hour to go before the onset of evening action, major market indexes reversed their course.

The Nasdaq Composite was down 5.65 points at 2,019.82 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average had slipped 14.75 points to 10,357.

Good hunting
Howevering of Oxon

lets hope tuesday is as good as monday. happy myself to opportunities taken lets see what tuesday brings , good luck.

morning campers,

morning all.

Morning boys and girls!

Morning ladies and gents!

long ARM 120

morning everybody

mornin all

Lobbed AMT +13 - not bad for 24 hours! ;-)

Went long FIB 124p

Took the cash from JKX at 120p - and lots of it!!! ;-)))))

Out of RDW +6.5

Tom Hougaards thoughts for todays market
rgds
zarif
Good morning,



I will readily admit that I was surprised in a major way by the weakness yesterday evening. I dont know what caused the market to reverse like it. It doesnt really matter. Maybe there is liquidation of a portfolio or maybe it is the rebalancing of the Russell 2000 index. One thing I know is that support is 1132 and this will have to hold otherwise I will lean back on the short side.



The Fed meeting is tomorrow evening and maybe the selling was related to this. Either way we should know today if there is any more selling coming because if it is liquidation the seller will have to get the selling done over the next 12 trading hours. The US futures dipped down to 1127 overnight so we could see more downside today. Usually someone knows something and they will sell ahead to hedge themselves or front run the market. A lot depends on how weak Europe will open up in 20 minutes time.



I am cautiously optimistic that we will see higher prices as long as we can hold this area around 1132. For today I do have a dip near the open and a turn later on today. I suspect volume will dry up going in the FOMC meeting tomorrow, but I also know for a fact that institutions will do anything to keep prices afloat ahead of the 30th June mark-to-market cut off date. As the funds have to be fully invested I will bet that they will hold the market higher. As I stated over the weekend the market favours dip buying this week.



The good news in my mind is that the quarter-end is nearly over and I suspect we will see a 2-3 week straight line move beginning in early July.



Good luck today



Tom

25 is long term support - this looks like a nice low risk higher low to me...

Big Al.

Thanks for your thoughts on what you are trading.

Took up JKX in time to make a few quid, so I owe your a drink :)

sw - I've never refused one yet!! ;-))

Must admit my RR. and AQP long looking a bit sad, so it's not all good news. And I lobbed AMT far too early this morning. Muppet!

is this where the amateur trade in the investors room. as i have never bought/sold, shares in the same day,same month yes.
as this side,,investors get`s 10% of the hits compared to traders.

any recent buyers of eidos/itv ,,or just me .

Traders just talk more crap, dave!

;-))

???

Dave, keep and eye on wlw, it looks like it is begining to drift after all that effort!!

Cheers Big Al.

sof could make a jump tomorrow. Always underplayed and undervalued, if they have made any advances in sorting the Kwiksave portion, then they may just head back to 170p.

In at 146p

cheers seawall, i`ve noticed it drifting around the 45/46 seems like the winds droped. still under valued by miles i dont no , and the best 6 months to come.

talking of sof,,i was in a kwik save store this morning {denbigh},god it was dead.1 on the till ,7 in line waiting. this store was the in a large unit ,with about 7 other small outlets. offee/pet shop/hairdressers/cafe/bread shop/green grocer/card store/fancy goods.are all these other format stores,anything to do with sof,,rent wise.it was very dated .

long ukx just under 4500

Dave. Do you spend all day doing market research for your shares or just shopping?

LOL

I expect them to jump tomorrow, could be wrong, but it is only for an overnight trade anyway. If it fails, I will wait for the divi and then get out when I show a profit from then either the day before or as soon as, after.

Kwiksave has been a thorn in Somerfields side since they bought the chain. The City want them to finally get some results from the restructuring. If they have, it will show in the results and there may be a sellers premiuim more or less immediately.

Same gamble for me as Woolworths, they either get it right and I win or the mark time. In this case if the share price heads towards 1.20p again, then they are vulnerable for a takeover. They had an offer last year for that which they quite rightly turned down. This company is worth far more than that!

both,,,no i went to see a mate who own`s an antique shop in denbigh.kwik saves around the corner.i remember the days when these where near 5.00,the old head office of kwik save,is only about 1 mile from where i live.now an insurance phone farm i belive{axa}.good luck i think you will be allright,do you remember the old rummor big food /kwik save,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,never came off,still i done well.dave

Bit of a mixed bag day today with some good ones and some annoying little ones. Overall, probably slightly minus when I tot up the commission, so no big deal.

Still long AQP (hmm), FIB (OK), MRS (well up despite pullback), ROK (Another hmm), and still short RR. (wee hmm) and WHT (well in).

A couple of cockups, namely lobbing AMT at the first shake, although it closed where I dumped them and pondering FWY long for too long before the RNS.

Have a good evening all.

Al