Start performer today, was on a spread of 65.50 / 66/60p at close last Friday but an UT of 68p as closing price

The rising trend of the last couple days continues

This chart shows clearly what I was trying to say at the post above

Good news on the housing front earlier this morning must be a good reason for the shares holding well today ...........

House prices unchanged in May -- Mon 01 Jun, 2009 10:09
LONDON (Reuters) - House prices in England and Wales were unchanged in May, the first time in 20 months that there has been no month-on-month decline, property data company Hometrack said on Monday.

House prices are still down 9.6 percent on a year ago, but the end of the run of monthly house price falls chimes with more bullish news from mortgage lender Nationwide, which reported house price rises for two of the past three months.

Hometrack said that a rise in sales and a shortage of supply was behind May's steady house prices, but warned that prospects for a sustained recovery in house prices were still poor.

"Quite simply it is too early to rule out future price falls and the sensible money would be on further falls in the next 12 months," said Richard Donnell, Hometrack's director of research.

"Given the weak outlook for the economy, house prices are expected to remain under downward pressure for the foreseeable future," he added.

Even though home sellers were now pricing more realistically, volumes of home sales remained well below normal as buyers found it hard to get finance, Donnell said.

Unemployment is forecast to rise steadily into next year, and banks are reluctant to lend unless buyers have much higher deposits than during the boom which caused house prices to triple between 2000 and late 2008. Prices are now about a fifth below their peak.

Hometrack's survey is based on responses from 1,776 estate agents and surveyors, who are asked to estimate achievable selling prices for various categories of property. The survey is not seasonally adjusted to reflect the greater activity in the housing market in spring and early summer.

                                        PISS TIME FUN
Where are the SHORTERS no posting today ?

they are away to find a proper job.........un fortunately we are now in a bull market and this could last at least 5 years plus.

err, unfortunately due to shorters, there aint many jobs in the country so they might be on dole for many years to come

EARLY LONDON MARKET REPORT

The Abu Dhabi government owned International Petroleum Investment
Company IPIC) announced that it is to dispose of some of the position
it took in Barclays bank last year, so it can focus on hydrocarbon
related opportunities. The news sent shares in Barclays tumbling 40p
(12.6%) to 276.25p in massive volumes, the biggest blue chip loser by far.

This hit the fragile confidence in banking issues generally, with
Lloyds slipping 2.1p at 70.4p, Royal Bank of Scotland off 0.9p at
39.3p and HSBC 14.5p lower at 537.5p.

The best thing to come out of this is it's allowed me to get back in to Barcs, more profit to come imo. :))
Plus lloyds still nearly double offer price.... :)))

Now recovering from the early lows at 67.1p, FTSE was at one time just about 100 points lower..........

EARLY LONDON MARKETS
Yesterday's move by Abu Dhabi's IPIC to take profits from the sale of 11% of its stake in Barclays
raised concerns that other investors will be looking to take profits in banking stocks after their recent revival.

As a result, Barclays dropped a further 16.75p at 256.75p, the poorest blue chip performer again,
Lloyds fell 3p at 66.5p and Royal Bank of Scotland slipped 0.7p at 37.4p.

When you talk in 2p here and 3p there falls, it doesnt sound much but realistically its down 15% - 20 % over the last few days - a massive amount to climb back. I cant personally see them (banks) recovering in the medium term to be honest. They may good value in a SIPP if your under 50 yrs old but at the minute not worth the hassle. The only people who will make money out of these are the big boys - at your expense !

nordcaperen -

re - When you talk in 2p here and 3p there falls, it doesnt sound much but realistically its down 15% - 20 % over the last few days

I am not sure how you do with shares but MATHS is not your strenth.
Last week it went UP from 64 to 72.60p in 3 days = to 13.43% (8.60p :64p= 13.43%)
An since yesterday it has retrace to 66.50p this morning, this means -6.10p in 2 days = to 8.40% ( 72.60p - 66.50p = 6.10p :66.50 =8.40%)

RESUME
UP ...... 13.43%
DOWN ... 8.40%

It was actually 76p the figure I was working from, so forgive me its gone done 18% in the last two weeks, Also there are 20% more buys than sells today - and its still falling like a brick. Its not the stock, its sentiment, the point I'm trying to make was that Banking Shares are too volatile to trade presently. There is no 'good news' out there at the minute and I cant see none coming for quite some time in this sector - safer places for your money. I'll take a punt on Barc. @ below 2, Lloyds around 50p and Rbs at below 30p - I dont mean shorting (think its unethical). But there the prices I'd be looking at to buy in at. I mentioned before, when I traded these stocks Lloyds worked out double the share price of RBS , and Barc. traded at treble the Lloyds price. Formula worked quite well for some time, gone to pot now though - thats why I'm leaving well alone. When its gets back to same levels, I'll start dabbling again.

Read quite a few of your posts and must say I am impressed with the chart work - not something I use, but does make interesting reading - especially when you explain how it works.

Keep up the good work - and let me know when you think its turned !!

Oh, and your thoughts on Hyleo are 100% correct - Now theres one Math i've got correct

Regards Nord.

re - Oh, and your thoughts on Hyleo are 100% correct

Glad WE got something right


re - I'll take a punt on Barc. @ below 2, Lloyds around 50p and Rbs at below 30p
re - Formula worked quite well for some time, gone to pot now though

Maybe the reason is a couple things have change since:
LLOY has made a 1 for 40 capital... meaning more shares on the market, and also the large Placing 0.6213 for 1 share held at a large discount 38.43p

edit - I am very sorry but even at 76p, I can not work out your 18%

re -Keep up the good work - and let me know when you think its turned !!

The shares wil be just about the market till the result of the take up is released.

The share will be motoring on news that the economy is recovering, but mainly the house prices are recovering.

hyleo has disappeared, lol. maybe he's at school.

i agree nord about shorting being unethical.....if banks go, then no businesses and no jobs.....actually no bank accouns either so people with money would lose no matter what any gov says.

so hyleo makes a billion but he cant stand spend it shopping or buying food etc as no shops.....oh dear he'll starve to death

In the Long term - i think there an excellent buy (Banks) they're the hub of everything but until sentiment returns I'm staying out. When is the take up released, was it 10th june ??

Expected time and date of admission and commencement of dealing is tuesday 9 June, most likely will be mush at the same time.
The offer closes at 12 pm Friday 5 june

Threre was a POSITIVE report at the TELEGRAPH a couple days ago .......

Record jump for housing construction
There was fresh evidence on Tuesday that the UK housing market has turned a corner.

By Angela Monaghan
Published: 7:20PM BST 02 Jun 2009

Data showed residential construction almost stopped declining in May and business expectations in the sector were the highest since August 2007.

Housing activity on the well-respected construction Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) jumped by a record 14.8 points to 48.5 in May, from 33.7 in April. Although anything below 50 indicates a contraction, it was the highest level on the housing measure since November 2007 which was the last month before the sector started shrinking.

UK manufacturing sector decline could be over by autumn, PMI shows
Export orders drive improvement in UK manufacturing sectorIt was also the first time since June 2007 that it registered a higher level than the commercial and civil engineering sectors, after the housing market led the construction sector into recession.

Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit which co-produces the PMI series, said the housing index improvement "raises the possibility of a year-on-year increase in house prices by the end of the year."

Output in the construction sector as a whole rose to 45.9 on the PMI in May, from 38.1 as the pace of decline slowed for the third month in a row. Business expectations rose to 72.6 from 56.4 - the biggest show of optimism since August 2007. "These data are a further sign that the UK economy is now past the worst of the recession, and may be moving closer to genuine growth," said Colin Ellis, economist at Daiwa Securities.

Does one wants to wait longer or is the market ready to follow the recovery trend of the
last couple month and then miss the cheap prices ........

From the TELEGRAPH

Diary of a private investor: Three reasons why it is bigger risk to be out of the market
Can the spring rally continue into summer? The FTSE 100 was crushed at a mere 3,512 on March 3. By early this week, it had risen to 4,500 a 28pc jump.

In glorious Technicolor retrospect, it seems pretty obvious that the market was likely to recover from its March low since many individual shares at the time were at Armageddon-fearing valuations.

Indeed, I did mention in this diary in early March that a company called Staffline was priced at a mere 2.5 times its prospective earnings and the shares were seriously cheap.

These shares have risen 66pc since. And that illustrates the problem. Many such shares may well still be excellent value for the medium or longer term. But you would not use the phrase seriously cheap so freely now.

So what happens next? If that was a rally from extreme cheapness, what does the market do when it is merely excellent value? Last week I got a little nervous and sold some of my shares in Enterprise Inns, a pub company.

I reckoned May was ending and summer is the season when shares tend to do badly. Add in that the market has had such a terrific run and was there not a setback risk? Was it not a good idea to have more cash in hand?

But three things now make me think the bigger risk is being out of this market. The first is a paper by economist Tim Congdon, who has just created a new consultancy International Monetary Research.

In this he argues inflation will not take off in the next two years, contrary to my previous belief. I had thought all this monetary stimulus was likely to lead to serious inflation. If this happened, it would lead to higher interest rates, which would undermine any potential bull market.

But, looking at the American economy, Congdon examines major economic setbacks and finds in six cases out of seven since the Second World War, the inflation rate two years after a trough was lower that it had been previously. That is one worry of mine calmed.

The second influence again comes from Congdon. He went on to study how the stock market in America performed in the two years following a trough in economic activity. Of course, this is not America, but a similar story can probably be told here. In every case, shares rose. ...............

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/5433916/Diary-of-a-private-investor-Three-reasons-why-it-is-bigger-risk-to-be-out-of-the-market.html

And yet more positive news for the economy ..........

UK Consumer Confidence Picks Up

U.K. consumer confidence strengthened in May, buoyed by a more optimistic assessment of the economic outlook. The Nationwide Building Society, a leading mortgage lender, says its measure of consumer confidence rose to 53 in May from 51 in April. UK Service Sector Expands
The U.K. may be emerging from recession earlier than other major economies, with the dominant service sector showing expansion in May for the first time in 12 months, a research group says

Not exactly flying North on the news are they