Today they have fallen 22% to a new low of 223p ..are they another Marconi..?



The chart looks like one long suicide note.

Another spurt now - up to 1.50 hopefully - Big trades going through at 1.60 and even higher, cant work out whats going on !!

its not investing anymore......may as well go to bookies......they r probably more honest too

yesterday's fall was terrifying but presumably on the fear that the LLOY deal was off and HBOS would be doomed ..... or perhaps just some fund being forced to liquidate ...... today's rise, though sp finished miles off its top merely reflected the virtual certainty that the merger will indeed take place (confirmd i believe during PMQs), though the terms are currently a bit foggy.

does anyone else think that todays RNS suggests that the deal may be renegotiated?

according to the paper this am it is

Surely now the merger does not have to go ahead?

HBOS are able to get funds from the Government that would amount to the same thing but without loosing it's identity.

But would it not be money saving to run 1 instead of 2 ie fewer branches and as this is already in the public domain it has more or less been accepted. I would think lloyds would be happy for the deal to go through. Still it's tha share holders decision which probably means the govt now!

have now cashed in all my HBOS holding, not least because neither party is denying the renegotiation rumour ...... since the gov't bailout terms were announced, i think that story is now more credible and current sp is therefore quite well ahead of the game (about 20p i think) if the conversion is cut to 0.6 ..... only thing to keep pushing up HBOS sp will be bears scrambling to cover, but that is a dangerous gamble

Good call cynic

HBOS to pull deal with Lloyd's and go it alone, since UK will bail them out with limitless funding.

am out too and at a profit for a change!!

maggiebt4 - you are as right as I can determinwe - LLOY is tainted by history(my words), because these two businesses saw advantages in being one. BUT the Regulator would not allow it - it was but a dream . . .however I suspect LLOY weren't too close to the HBOS books, rather they look at the "big picture - and like what they see.
(now), with Government blessing ( and who know what else, as the deal was "done" rather quickly methinks)....the deal is about a "done" as can - for whatever we punters think, Institutions will determine this - and I suspect (but cannot know!) that they like the idea of stripping out costs and having a large Bank that can rival anything in the World, paid for by Mortgage cash-input.
Yesterday I bought a few HBOS for this reason:- the differential is out of step and if a "renegotiation" was likely, the City would already know - but I suspect most Institutuions hold "roughly" the same amount (of each stock) so they won't lose either way and Time is of the essence - to avoid any further damage to UK-plc.
Er, let's hope.

(Let's not forget that only 2-weeks ago GB was nearly kicked-out (it was only the lack of anyone else!...) - yet now he's seen as a Big International Finance Player, who may have just grasped the nettle correctly.)

Personally, I think his bad-calls far outweigh anything good,
BUT that doesn't matter right "Now".

is that your guess or reality, for i see nothing on Reuters?
if reality, i cannot believe that will be good for HBOS sp either

even though HBOS is now only 149 (164 day's high), LLOY has dropped back to 205.5.

therefore at 0.83 conversion, HBOS would be valued at 170 but at 0.6, only 123.

HBOS does not look a good bet to me at these prices, and i certainly see no advantage to HBOS trying to go it alone, even if they can.

Rising to fast for me, with little good news on the world financial meltdown I fear a big drop any day now. Short sellers in USA back soon

doh! you can't short financials now!!

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has temporarily banned naked short-selling of US stocks and short-selling in general in US financial stocks.

Cynic when short selling resumes how long do you think before they put another USA bank in trouble, which in turn will effect banks here. Wake up and read the post.

it's actually wake up and smell the coffee! ..... just for your historical knowledge, income tax was also brought in as a temporary measure, from meory to pay for the Napoleonic Wars ...... strange that we still seem to be paying for those - lol!

Just for you short selling in the USA has started again

Bloomberg

Shorts Return

The end of a three-week ban on short selling financial stocks may reduce the market's record price swings as hedge funds increase trading.

After the Securities and Exchange Commission started the rule Sept. 19, volume on the New York Stock Exchange dropped 35 percent and the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index surged to 57.53, its third straight record. Options on the VIX, as the volatility gauge is known, imply it will fall 44 percent in the next two weeks after the rule expired last night