any comments, thoughts, on this stock.

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.

I'm a happy longer at the mo. ;-))

Flat after +6-ish

closed short yesterday - now short again at 183.5 - stressful share to trade, clearly hard to call ....

indeed .... but though there are certain bullish noises from a few interested or even partisan parties, i really (and truly!) cannot believe there is anything other than tears for the shareholders

cynic - me too - I'm more concerned about it going into administration if a solution can not be found - then I'd be truly busted not able to close the short!

not sure what happens in those circumstances .... do you have any definitive info from your broker on same?

cynic - will check with gni

There are special provisions enabling buying to close shorts even though shares are suspended. Basically you would agree a price with a market maker or the spreadbetter.

thanks Kayak ..... knew it would have to be closable somehow

Not sure it's wise to be short with bids in the offing and trying to second guess a bid size. A bit dangerous?

yup ..... but will leave to run for the moment at least, even though my gut feeling is that any bid will be worth no more than 2p!

Cant imagine any financial institution making a bid before examining NRK's books.

Goes without saying halifax.

To start a wider discussion, what is the value of NRK? People are bandying around extremely small numbers, but the value of the loan book must be substantial. Is there anyone around here who is good at the fundie stuff? I freely admit I'm crap and always have been. I mean they have to pay interest on what they've borrowed on the money markets too, but similarly they've got it coming in from the mortgagees who by all accounts are merrily paying what they are due every month. I could go on, but was wondering others views.

Anyone enlighten me?

I wonder if you should put the question to RAB Capital Big Al, they must of made some assessment having invested some 5% of its fund in NRK.

Big Al - NRK has 113bn of mortgages which need to be sold at a discount - if sold at only a 5% discount - that's a loss of 5.65bn - they have just over 2.bn of net assets so the bank would then be insolvent

response from broker re holding short positions if share suspended ...

Generally, it depends on the reason for suspension - and whether any explanations have been given. Risk make an assessment and almost always, the stock goes to full 100% Initial Margin. It is suspended at whatever the Exchange suspends it at, and then we wait until the stock either comes back to the market or disappears.

If a stock goes into administration then it would almost certainly go into suspension and again, 100% IM etc....would apply. But, since administration would most likely mean Bankruptcy, there could be other difficulties. It can be difficult or impossible to close the position, and if one could find a seller to match your short out, then it would require LSE approval. Also we would have to wait on the Administrators to see whether there are any other liabilities.

The knock-on effect from the US sub-prime market shows no sign of letting up in Japan.
In the last 7 days Origami Bank has folded, Sumo Bank has gone belly up and Bonsai bank announced plans to cut some of its branches. Yesterday is was announced that Karaoke Bank is up for sale and will likely go for a song while today shares in Kamikaze bank were suspended after they nose-dived and 500 back office staff at Karate Bank got the chop. Analysts report that there is something fishy going on at Sushi bank and staff fear they could get a raw deal.

Sounds like Northern Rock has turned into Rotten Pork

Falco .... you should be ashamed of yourself! .... lol!!