any one got a feelling in their water how far LLoyds will go looking to to buy but just dont know when they are low enough

I doubt the government will be keen to nationalise. The balance sheets of even the smallest remaining banks is probably larger than our GDP. My guess is they'll try to let them hobble on for now. I wouldn't be surprised to see the short selling ban reintroduced. Not because it'll make any difference, but because the short sellers are an ideal scape coat. The subsequent price pop would probably also buy some more time. If confidence continues to collapse though, ultimately there could be no choice but to nationalise. I dread to think what would happen to Sterling with the banks liabilities on the governments books though. All seems very sureal....

In my opinion.

Strawbs.

Strawbs for government read us taxpayers.

It's very difficult to see how RBS and LLOY can survive and I say that as a shareholder in RBS. The market would then target BARC and bring them into Gov/other ownership. HSBC would then probably collapse particularly if the economy gets worse in the Far East. I could then only see Standard Charter survive. The Gov knows it is a pack of cards waiting to happen which is one reason why they don't want to start nationalising them.

Just a thought. Why can't a company be nationalised and if and when it is returned to the market, say in 2 years time, the original investors get their shares back? That way, everybody stays reasonably happy except the idiotic board who got us into this mess in the first place who presumably would be kicked-out.

Another RNS telling us that a Director has bought about 200-worth of shares, but you'll be glad to know that to encourage this risk, he's been given 75 "matching shares" ( Eh, whose maths is that?). . . . nice to know that Director and shareholder interests are aligned.
Grr!
LLOY is up 10% today, I wonder if that is this 200-worth Director purchase, it would be nice to think not.

with Dow tanking, it will be interesting to see what happens in London tomorrow morning, especially with the banks ...... my bet is that they will marked down as heavily as they were marked up this morning.

i have actually cashed in about 60% of my LLOY holding (if a short can be deemed such) for a respectable profit ..... the balance is currently showing a slightly smaller loss

hindsight is great, but was still better to bank some profit last night than to hang on to all ...... balance now also in profit

My target is still 24p.

i would be very happy with that, but got too greedy when sp dropped to about 33 the other day ..... should have banked the profit then, but no matter

Still you made a good profit thats the main thing.

In auction.

Target now 124p.

glad i cut my losses yesterday!

nice profit taken today, as the gardener said to the art mistress.. nice to have a bird in the hand.

more fun to have two in the bush!

God punished me for getting too smart by several-fold when sp was lowq/mid 30s!

Market Ticker has gone short term bullish most unusual esp, financials

Here we go again falling like a stone hw low can they go this time ?

TRADING STATEMENT

"The Board of Lloyds Banking Group plc (the 'Group') announces an update to the trading performance of HBOS plc (HBOS) and Lloyds TSB Group (Lloyds TSB) for the year ended 31 December 2008 and on the capital position of the Group as at 31 December 2008. The figures quoted in this statement are preliminary estimates and unaudited.

Lloyds TSB traded profitably and satisfactorily in 2008 and expects to report a profit before tax from its continuing businesses, including the impact of approximately 1.3 billion from market dislocation, of some 2.4 billion. On a statutory basis, adjusting for the impact of insurance volatility of c.0.75 billion, and aggregate provisions of c.0.4 billion in respect of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) levy, certain historic US dollar payments and goodwill write-downs, profit before tax is expected to be in the region of 1.3 billion, before the policyholder interests volatility charge which is currently expected to be c.0.5 billion.

Since its 12 December 2008 trading update, HBOS's 2008 trading has been further impacted by increasingly difficult market conditions, an acceleration in the deterioration of credit quality and falls in estimated asset values. The Group expects HBOS to report an underlying loss before tax of some 8.5 billion for the year ended 31 December 2008. On a statutory basis, adjusting for the impact of short term fluctuations (c.0.25 billion), loss on sale of businesses (c.0.85 billion), FSCS levy (c.0.2 billion) and goodwill impairment (c.0.15 billion), the loss before tax is expected to be approximately 10 billion, before the policyholder tax charge which is currently expected to be approximately 0.9 billion. The key elements of the loss are the 4 billion impact of market dislocation and approximately 7 billion of impairments in the HBOS corporate division. The market dislocation has been driven by deterioration in asset quality and falling market valuations. The impairments are, principally as a result of applying a more conservative provisioning methodology consistent with that used by Lloyds TSB, and reflecting the acceleration in the deterioration in the economy, some 1.6 billion higher than our expectations when we issued our shareholder circular at the beginning of November last year.

The Board currently estimates that the Group's Core tier 1 capital ratio at 31 December 2008 will be within the range of 6.0 - 6.5 per cent, which is significantly in excess of its regulatory capital requirements. This reflects the unaudited financial results for both Lloyds TSB and HBOS and is adjusted for the completion of recent capital raisings, and the initial fair value analysis of the acquired assets and liabilities which includes the regulatory capital benefit of the fair valuing, on acquisition, of HBOS's own debt (the Group will provide a further update on these matters when it announces its full results on 27 February 2009). On the same proforma basis, the Group continues to expect its Tier 1 capital ratio, at 31 December 2008, to be in excess of 9 per cent."

Jesus H Corbett a complete collapse of the banks...

No, just LLoy down 23%. Slight overstatement mitzy!