any comments, thoughts, on this stock.

STOCKWATCH Northern Rock up 40 pct as investors try to gauge Virgin news




LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Stricken mortgage lender Northern Rock was up
nearly 39 pct as traders short-covered the stock while investors assessed news
that the group has confirmed that it is to take forward takeover discussions
with the Virgin Consortium.
At 9.23 am, Northern Rock shares were up 32 pence, or nearly 39 pct, at 119.
The consortium, which comprises Virgin Group, US buyout firm WL Ross & Co,
UK hedge fund Tosca Fund Asset Management and First Eastern Investment Group,
would inject 1.3 bln stg into the business, as well merge the group into the
Virgin money brand. The implied value of the group, which would be rebranded
Virgin Money, is 250 mln stg, Northern Rock said.
"Virgin Money isn't worth 250 mln stg," said an analyst at a UK broker. "It
only made around 10 mln stg in pretax profits last year."
Virgin will provide half of the amount in cash and half will be raised
through a new share offer to existing shareholders priced at 25 pence per share.
Virgin's indicative proposal includes an 11 bln stg repayment to the Bank of
England, and Northern Rock added that the BoE will have a "clear path to
repayment in full".
Sandy Chen, an analyst at Panmure Gordon, wrote in a note to shareholders
that going forward with the Virgin talks was "good for Virgin" but "dilutive for
shareholders". Panmure cut its target price for the group to 40 pence and
maintained its 'sell' recommendation.
"We have also not changed our views that even though a substantial
portion of the BOE funding may be repaid, the continuing high costs of debt
funding will severely impact margins," Chen said.
He added that a sharp slowdown in lending will "hurt top-line growth" and
said that his earliest expectations of profits would be in 2009.

hyleo .... are you long or short? ...... if long, then no question but sell ..... if short, then you must be hurting badly but guess no option than to stay that way, if you can bear the pain .... my logic is that once the rights issued is formalised, the sp must surely drop (mustn't it?) and for myself, am tempted to re-short at the current level.

So short is the message, cynic.

if any action at all

Are you shorting NRK today...the price is dropping

hlyeo, if you have to ask other posters what advice to take on a stock, perhaps you should consider not taking any positions at all, especially short ones on margin!

i have not shorted further, but still may do

Seems that the price is far from dropping - up 28% today

Peter .... sp has been an awful olot higher this morning .... think i saw it as high as 140 earlier, and could certainly have dealt in high 120s

with all the rumours, counter rumours and even facts, NRK is gonna be a volatile jobbie, mind you can't help but agree that it has to be a short, but no position for me

I'm not asking you, pth, you can keep your tiny grey matter to yourself.

you might not be asking me, but i'm telling you, stay away from the leveraged products until you at least have a tiny idea what you are doing :)

come on children ..... bad golf this w/e Peter (lol)? .... confess to being very cheesed yesterday in a 4-ball knockout .... we were 3 down with 4 to play and pulled it back to flat by 18th .... looked as though we should have that tied up too, but they made a miraculous recovery from what looked to be dead and i 3-putted! .... we lost on 19th (my fault again)

Just got home Richard so haven't played yet, probably Wednesday, will also give you a call soon re sorting out a round.

Anyway I've been short from 165p. I don't think it will reach that level anymore imo.

would concur with that, and i guess would let it run though you may want to top-slice to lock in some profits ...... am still pondering

Watching from the sidelines and feeling sicksick doing so. Surely with a 25p rights issue on the horizon from the preferred bidder this is bound to plunge soon. ? Has this price surge been induced by the vain hope that some white knight other than Branson is going to come forth ?

annie ... if on sidelines, why sick?

Cynic: You must have a stronger constitution than me if the gyrations in
this one is not making you feel "green about the gills !"

while i have no position, i can look on rather as i would a football match