any comments, thoughts, on this stock.

Action group

Following a run on the bank, the government pledged to guarantee all Northern Rock deposits held in accounts as of midnight, 19 September.

The cancellation of the dividend is another blow for shareholders, who have now joined forces in an action group to promote their interests.

The group has been set up by the UK Shareholders Association (UKSA), which says "many shareholders were persuaded to invest in shares in the company in recent months based on the apparent strength of the business when in reality the company was in great financial difficulty".

The group is opposed to a quick disposal of Northern Rock that might not reflect the true value of its assets.

Shares in the bank - which have lost nearly 75% of their value since it was forced to seek emergency funding - slipped a further 5.2% on Tuesday.

hlyeo98--Have been reading today's posts with interest. If the interim dividend cancalation was announced before the market closed, then that factor is probably discounted in the sp. If the Company is to continue it needs to conserve cash and this cancalation is the right move.

hewittalan6--I think Birmingham Midshires is wholly owned by HBOS ?

janetbennison--I am not too sure whether Barclays have management control of the full stake. ie part may be held as nominees. Still I'm sure the press will have something to say about it.

smiler 0-- re action group. I can see that the cancalation of dividend is a blow if you were expecting the dividend but, further on, it may be seen to of helped to keep the Company trading during these tricky times and assist in presenting a better position in any buy out. As regards investors buying shares based on apparent strength, with all shares, you pay your money and take your chance. Unless the relevant facts were not disclosed in the accounts or announcements I cannot see how there is a case. The FSA didn't seem to think there was any problem. What the majority of the experts failed to see was the weakness with NRK's way of doing business, when wholesale money markets seized up. I agree that the Board should avoid a fire sale of assets.

Just waiting for director resignations. Mr Applegarth will be only too happy to get away from the mess he has created.

I do not think you can place the blame solely on him. Banks are regulated and it is very easy to blame people with hindsight. You must look further a field. I wouldn't be surprised if regulation passing to the FSA from the BOE was a weakness and we may find this changes again in the future. Mr A had a large holding in NRK so I don't think he was doing things in other than good faith. Market conditions that most of bankers did not see coming found him out. Moreover, if matters were dealt with more quietly, as it would have happenend years ago, we would not have seen anything like the current mess.

Can they say one day that they will pay the divi and then the next say no we wont.. a lot of people might have hung on just for the divi,

You must be joking mojo.

The non payment of the div is expected by those who have the foresight to take note of what has been widely reported over the last 2 weeks.

If some thought they would get a divi then they must be extremely stupid.

sp this morning is enjoying a surge, presumably on the back of rumoured bids various ..... however, at the end of the day it is still almost inconceivable that the shareholders will be left with anything, even if a bid of some kind does emerge.

That's a bit harsh, seawall.
The company has continually confirmed that the divi would be paid. They even took legal advice to see if they could withdraw it, the result of which was that they again confirmed that the divi would be paid. The announcement to default was made at 15.30 on tuesday, which was one hour before the markets closed & which was the last day to be registered to receive the divi. It was not obvious that it would be withdrawn, imo, though it was obvious that they wanted to withdraw it.

So thats the same as the bank saying they would lend them cash if you needed it and then when N R asked for it the bank for the money the bank saying no sorry. so all in all you cant trust the b............ what ever they say

I appreciate your point cynic but, your worst case scenario must surely only come to pass if the BOE withdraw support. With the new large shareholders plus other private investers buying stakes recently, that must be conservatively 20%. If the BOE/ Government are seen to be promoting a rout it could prove very expensive for them(thats politicians) publically. It is going to be a very interesting time.

no .... PXC is not a bad example on a much smaller scale .... any buyer will either cherry-pick bits and pieces or pay effectively zero for thw whole

Yes... but they have to be allowed to cherry pick. Your arguement infers that the shareholders have no choice & support is withdrawn. Moreover, NRK have put up collateral and are paying interest. What price NRK will achieve I dont know but, I shall be most surprised if the result for shareholders is Zero.

you could easily be surprised then! ...... lonhg long article in today's Telegraph, but it set out the 3 likely or possible scenarios (scenarii?) ...... the conclusion was that in each event the shareholders will be left with ZERO! ...... in fcat, that would suit BoE and gov't very well, for they have been castigated in various quarters for even offering NRK depositors and mortgagees any lifeline at all, so to effectively bail out the shareholders would lead to a massive and arguably justified hue and cry.

I agree with Cynic, it doesn't look good, today should have been a big fillip, but the market is unimpressed, share will continue to drift, maybe not as dramatically as the last two weeks, I increased my short this am around the peak, also short on AL., sentiment is against them, bernanke put is going to be a temporary boost to markets but I expect that the Bear market is definitely here for financials at least.

i also topped up my short here this morning @ 179 ..... shorting AL may be bit brave unless you did it when it briefly hit 800+ a couple of weeks back

steveo - "the market is unimpressed"?

She opened up 7p and has been as much as 22p higher this morning. I'm amazed at the strength to be perfectly honest. Sure you're not watching another stock? ;-))

At present she's up 8%!

.............. but is it a shorting opportunity? ;-0

the market is indeed very unimpressed ....... even Collins Stewart who still rate NRK a hold say a simple takeover by another bank is unlikely and they continue to review their target price of 163

Big Al:

I beleive the main reason for the rise was that they weren't paying the dividend and rumours that there are interested parties present, bearing in mind that positive sentiment it didn't do much, considering its value just a few days ago. The sp is struggling to get to 180p, every day that passes puts it under more pressure. However I am by no means an expert whatsoever, just someone else having a small punt. yes it was up 8% now nearly 11%, that is why I increased my short, see more likelihood of downside from here. Time will tell

Re AL. short at 770p but have a tight stop loss on it, this credit crunch has a long way to go in my opinion.