What the Sunday Newpapers say

SUNDAY TIMES - Minerva is studying takeover offers from several rival groups - M&S pension trustees warn that Mr Philip Green would be likely to have to inject hundreds of millions of pounds into the pension fund if his bid for M&S succeeds - Permira is preparing to approach WH Smith with a reduced 850 million takeover offer - The slide in Vodafone's share price has opened up the possibility of a much bigger buyback of stock that the company had intended, possibly involving as much as 10% of the group's equity - Kleinwort Capital has put Kangol up for sale for an estimated 30 million - M&C Saatchi received a near 500,000 boost to its operating profit last year from the release of a provision made against a rent increase a year earlier - Prince Charles is to work with George Wimpey on large-scale developments through his charity the Prince's Foundation - Ragusa Capital, a shell business, has raised 5 million and will join AIM this week - Sirva of US one of three trade buyers to have made offers for DX, the mail business put up for sale by Hays - Russian mining group Sual is thought to have abandoned its flotation plans and is looking to reverse into a quoted miner - Ster Century, one of the country's leading cinema chains, is set to change hands in a 32 million deal Inside the City: - The wisdom of wooing Minerva Mr Stelios Haji-Ioannou must be tempted to take Easyjet private. Citywire Market Mole: - Framlington's AAA-rated head of smaller companies Mr Roger Whiteoak has sold Throgmorton Investment Trust's 1 million share stake in Lastminute.com Judgment Day: - Should you buy shares in Premier Foods? The shares need to come cheaper than the current indicative price Agenda: - M&S: Mr Stuart Rose on the ropes but his money can save him Other: - Mr Arun Sarin has to ring changes at Vodafone - Troubled times for battered Jarvis - Interview Mr David Kershaw of M&C Saatchi

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH- M&S's Mr Stuart Rose's ace: investors to get 2 billion cash back - Permira signs up Mr John Lovering, the retail entrepreneur, to help with its 1 billion bid for WH Smith - Members of the upmarket Queen's Club are poised to make a bid for the club, which could value it at 35 million - Mr Cedric Brown, former chief of British Gas, is planning to develop an offshore gas storage facility similar to Centrica's rough facility off the East Coast - Battle for control of Yukos has taken a fresh twist after it emerged that the Russian authorities have drawn up secret plans to seize control of the group's oil Equity View: - Keep buying William Morrison at 191p - Selling Reuters before any rebound would be a mistake - Buy VT Group at 267p - Buy Vendanta Resources at 294p - Buy Robert Walters at 123p - Buy Matalan at 206p - Buy Telecom Plus at 245p (Look Who's Trading) Breaking Views: - How to turn BSkyB into a Murdoch mint - Prudential: Egg on chief executives face Other: - Mr Oliver Letwin promises Tories will abolish the Financial Services Authority (interview) - Why the City is chary of Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Mobile - Serco profits from crime

OBSERVER  - M&S finessing a cash sweetener package expected to be worth 1 a share and will show tomorrow how it will fund the 2 billion-plus cost of the bonanza Throg Street: - No one should buy Wembley stock until the Lincoln issue has been solved - Either way you can't lose at MFI - Eric Nicoli left to face the music at EMI Group Other: - Mammon interview Mr Brian Gilbertson, ejected from Vedanta - Jarvis slams into the buffers - Stock market historian Mr David Schwartz says shares are ready to rise again after six months of drift

MAIL ON SUNDAY - Mr Philip Green in crisis talks over M&S 800 million pension bombshell - Cazenove expected to continue talks with potential bidders Lehman Bros and Citigroup - Center Parcs will confirm its intention to develop a fifth UK site on Wednesday - Citywire Secret Dealings: AAA-rated fund manager Mr Mark Slater has been buying shares in Music Choice Europe for his two unit trusts and a private investment vehicle Midas Column: - Digs Portfolio Review: Royal & Sun Alliance and Friends Provident replace Abbey National and Legal & General Other: - Is Britain falling out of love with Ikea? - Conflict crisis looms in BT actuaries - Big Food Group's Iceland fails to stop the sales slump Virgin Mobile float talked down by the City gamblers - Interview Jean-Francois Theodore of Euronext and Mr Ernesto Bertarelli of the Serono biotech enterprise - ITV shares slide 24% as merger fails to impress - Digital boost for EMI Group

THE BUSINESS - M&S pensions deficit threatens Mr Philip Green's bid - National Australia Bank is under institutional shareholder pressure to sell its entire British and Irish banking operations this year - Deutsche Bank makes 200 million bet on the revival of British Energy, paying a 25% premium for a package of bonds and shares - Capital Radio made a direct offer to Daily Mail & General Trust in February about acquiring its 29% stake in GWR - Tullow Oil will be one of the first independent oil companies to take a stake in Angola under an agreement signed with the country's National Oil firm Sonangol Benchmark: - Nasdaq's fall may spark start of hit-tech exodus - Alstom's rescue may merely end up spreading the contagion to its rivals - The twists and turns of the Sainsbury saga show no sign of abating Inside the Market: - Small Cap Investor: Total Systems worth picking up - AIM Investor - Regal Petroleum is a speculative buy Other comment: - Mr Steve Norris in call for plans to save Jarvis - Nokia position under threat as competition bites - Symbian extends lead in race against Microsoft - Why Newmont Mining may be worth more than its weight in gold - Thanks to renewed interest in single malt, Scotch is no longer on the rocks (Allied Domecq, Diageo)

SUNDAY EXPRESS - Mr John Lovering has agreed to bolster Permira's attempts to win control of WH Smith - Emblaze to launch a dedicated division that has already won a contract to supply Israel defence forces' signal corps with video players on handheld devices - Underwater recovery company Deep Sea Exploration preparing to list on AIM - Mr Bob Phillis of Guardian Media and Abbey National Chairman Lord Burns emerge as frontrunners to become Chairman of Camelot - Profile property magnate Mr Brian Scoucroft

INDEPENDENT - Mr Philip Green faces 1.6 billion pension fund shock in bid for M&S - Ryanair boss Mr Michael O'Leary poised to swoop in 670 million battle for Aer Lingus - BT chief mr Pierre Danon plans to muscle in on BSkyB's broadband TV manor - Chatter that Colt Telecom is seeking talks with Cable & Wireless about a merger appear to be off the mark. - National Association of Pension Funds is recommending voting Burberry Chairman Mr John Peace off the board - As the clock ticks away for Jarvis, 45 billion schools project struggles to find bidders - Interview Tim Lord, chief executive of the Tobacco Manufacturers' association.

INVESTORS CHRONICLETips:Buy First Calgary Petroleum (FPL) - First Quantum Minerals (FQM) - Peter Hambro Mining (POG) - Hardman Resources (HNR) - Excel Airways (EXA) - Domino's Pizza (DOM) - Enterprise (ETR) - Center Parcs (CPK)Tip Updates:Buy Bovis Homes (BVS) and Ben Bailey (BBC) High enough Superscape (SPS) and Geest (GET).Company Results:Buy Buy Northgate (NTG) and Ashtead Group (AHT).

SHARES MAGAZINE Plays of the Week:Buy: Sondex (SDX) at 190p, Rutland Trust (RUT) at 35.75p - Local Radio Company (TLR) at 100.5p.

Many thanks to Big Al for being this weekends Thoughter.

I had a bit of trouble with the text but ran it through The Babel Fish translator and deleted a few Jimmies to get it into Thames English for the softies down South.

Bunkering down now for rest of weekend before the Clans come for me.

Good Hunting
Dirked of Oxon

Good evening everyone.
Been away for a couple of weeks. Managed to look in now and then
using my mobile as a modem to see what everyone is doing.

As you can plainly see from the above chart, we've been range trading
all year and we're now near the bottom of the range.

Systems and swing trading work great in trends but tend to give false
signals in ranging markets, IMHO. So I think what's been happening is
folk have been getting bamboozled and stopped out near the range
extremities where they have been given false breakout and trend
continuation signals.

Until we do break the range and start trending again I believe the
safest option is to play the range and ignore your 'Signals'.

I don't know when or which direction we'll break, nor, I suspect,
does anyone else. Osama could cause a drop, US election year could
cause a rise. Maybe we get both, who knows? That's the point, we
don't know the future. So if you are in a range, then play the range.
If we enter a trend, then play the trend. Just be careful with your
entry points and stops and don't try and get greedy by calling a change
before it happens and try to take all the move.
Wait for confirmation and take some of it.

Market doesn't know where it wants to go at the moment, so don't get
whipsawed whilst it makes it's mind up.

Melnibone.

Melnibone
How about doing a Thoughter slot for me one weekend?
Martinibbs@aol.com if you can be tempted.
Regards
M

cheers martini and BigAl.
:-)

morning all.
Very good reading and analysis big Al. Thanks for that.

Morning.

Cheers guys and welcome home Melnibone.

Have a good day.

mornin all

Mornin all

good to see you back melnibone - hope you had a good hol

Morning all

Thanks for your thoughts Al (and explaining the TA, so it makes more sense!)
I'm out most of the day, so have a very profitable day trading everyone.

Morning.
Interesting read Big Al.

Welcome back Melnibone.

Morning. Thx folks. It's not the whole story by any means, but might give some an idea/inspiration.

Thx to M for his HTML/hosting capabilities! ;-)

Have not made a trade today - pretty thin Monday as usual apart from the odd one.

Thanks Martini and Big Al - this thread is great and useful to
many on the BB I am sure - even if they are too shy to post on it.
Here's hoping for an upward week! Be Lucky All!!

Morning all,

Thanks for the welcome.

Thanks for the offer of being a 'Thoughter', Martini, it gave me
a 'feel-good' moment. :-)
I'll have a think about it, although I would feel a bit of a fraud.

There are guys on these boards that have probably forgotten more than
I've learned, so far. I've only been trading Cfd's for about 18 months
after several years of normal 'Share Investing. I bet there's long in
the tooth traders and professional fund managers that have a little chuckle
as I fumble my way through the learning curve and bring back memories of
their own early days. :-)

Maybe best if I just keep throwing my own views up on the threads
at the moment, rather than possibly wrongly influencing folk with
the headline lead that is currently being so ably done by the more
experienced traders and investors with a track record under their belts.

Melnibone.

Morning all.

Nice one Big Al.

PLR seem stuck in the current range since last week.

Bit of news would shift them.

I say that because when I do usually, then it happens so now the speel is cast.

There given away my secret for trading!

As you have I thought it only fair.

Magic spells!

Ah ha, ah ha, ah ha ha ha...............

THUS is coming down nicely. I can see this testing the 15p support
that was the level in March 2002 after the demerger by Scottish power.

15p was the level that CSFB placed loads of shares with institutions
that initially gave a price floor prior to the slide to 5p.

Margins are getting squeezed in this industry, at the moment, and with
the US ex Chapter 11 telecoms coming back into the fray, I can see even
more pricing pressure.

Be wary of CTM, as well, these alternates were priced for growth, and
without growth, the growth premium will be removed from the share price.
CTM has a lot of bond debt, as well, that it will need to service.

Melnibone.

Up to you of course Melnibone - but there's a lot of wisdom
in what you say that I'm sure others would find interesting.

Melnibone - I only have 2 years CFD, 3-4 years spreadbetting and about 7 years investing. That isn't much more than you.

You can either be right or wrong and the market makes fools of all of us, especially those fund managers - completely useless bunch losing everyone else's money whilst taking fat fees.

Am currently waiting for Friday to see how much I cocked it up! ;-)))))

sw - we've not seen why PLR had a good burst late Friday yet. I'm intrigued.

Went long MER at 173p earlier and now an RNS has landed handily. ;-))

Yes it was a good burst, can not understand why it has now stalled a little.

It definelty bounced on support, but the indicators are that it should further up than that.

Wait and see job for me.

which way you people are playing AZN?