Wow, the banks are having a good day - RBS, LLOY and BARC are all up 3-4% on the day. Anyone know what's happening there?

Rich

Well rich you may have missed the boat but a combination of"oversold" and rumoured bid/merger speculation.. The Mail this morning mentions possible merger of BARC with Bank of America...(first mooted some months ago) and the Bradford/Bingley a t/over target by BARC(been doing the rounds for a while).
Pick of the bunch though is regional Gosforth based Northern Rock in which I have a 7k holding in at an average of 6.72, and has had a recommendation from Commerzbank today with a target price of 8.70p...Must confess I have been in and out of NRK and have always bought on value and in particular when the price has been sub 7..happy in the knowledge that this is a solid gem(pun indended) with a well run management team and loyal customer base,with a commitment to returning value to it's shareholders..IMHO..( and often eyed as a target by their big competitors!)....

From todays trading statement....
COMMENT

Adam J Applegarth, Chief Executive, commented: "Once again we are delivering
strong lending whilst maintaining tight control over costs, credit quality and
lending criteria and our full year results will reflect this excellent
performance. We are small, we have a unit cost advantage, we retain existing
customers well and are increasingly good at attracting new loans. We are
therefore well placed, as the housing market slows, to continue to deliver
strong growth in high quality, low risk assets and therebye enhance shareholder
value."


stockbunny..Lloyd is a great dividend payer but there is speculation that it's very generous divi may be hard to maintain and as a consequence would have an expected adverse effect on the price.Cetainly I admire the way they have not been burned in the rush to expand oversea's and get their fingers burned by having to write of bad debts from rash overpriced aquasitions..
Whatever your views on banks the rises are good for the FTSE which consistitutes nearly 10% of the 100.
My only negative views on the banks are from the customer point of view in which a takeover/merger does not alway deliver in the customer favour...HBOS being a prime example from my experience as a Bank of Scotlands customer!.

Regards and good luck.
C

C. You are so right, I view the dividend pay-back from the banking shares as at least some form of compensating factor for the charges etc we all face as customers! Not very heavily into Lloyds personally, hold just a few along with a few HBOS ones as it happens!