The worst performing UK Index sector in the final trading session of November are the Housebuilders (-3.6% in aggregate). This in spite of Nationwide House Price data showing UK home prices +1.9% YoY in November, beating expectations of +1.7%. What’s driving the Construction sector decline and are there any nuggets of gold in the muck?…
Deck the halls with risers and fallers. ‘Tis the season for the quarterly UK Index review and everything points to Royal Mail ending up on Old Nick’s naughty list. Next Tuesday is the cut-off date for determining who’s too small (by market capitalisation) to stay in the UK 100 (“blue-chips”), and who’s big enough on the…
Just two days before it was scheduled to publish full year results Thomas Cook delivers yet another profits warning. The first two pushed the shares -74% from 2018’s 150p peak to its 39p trough. Today’s hat-trick-maker has lopped off another 20% (-32% at day lows ), undoing some of the late October bounce above 50p, putting…
After a brief flirt, Wednesday, with the ceiling of November’s falling channel (7065), the UK Index is on the back foot into the weekend. Losses from the heavyweight Oil majors and Miners are overpowering the strength from a selection of Defensives (tobacco, pharma, telecoms) and high-street Banks (Lloyds and HSBC). The Pound Sterling has been both…
It’s that time of year again, when we refresh our statistics and take another look at the year-end phenomenon known as the Santa rally. The bullish theory holds that equities tend to rally in December, fuelled by a combination of window-dressing by portfolio managers, holiday-thinned trading volumes and self-fulfilling prophecy. Our latest report looks at…
Silver miner Fresnillo trades fresh 2018 lows after a 12% share price plunge Thursday and another 7% today. Why? Analysts at Morgan Stanley downgraded it to Underweight and cut their target to 715p (from 1100p). Why? A series of bills in the Mexican parliament that could restrict mining. This highlights a glaring issue for long-term…