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CFD Traders DiaryCommodity stocks hit hard overnight and this morning20/3/2008 There was a sharp reversal in commodity prices around the world yesterday and it could be that the long term bull market in mining stocks is at an end after gold saw a huge drop of almost $60 overnight. This has had a big impact on the FTSE 100 index so far, with Vedanta and Anglo American down around 5% and the other blue chip miners not far behind. Aside from that, traders have seen mixed action with the index down around 50 points, and all eyes have been on HBOS, which saw a wave of selling yesterday before clawing back the losses after the FSA threatened action on false rumours and short selling. Today the shares have settled down around unchanged, but volume is high and it will be interesting to see whether all this is a final panic low, which could certainly be the case. Elsewhere, the resignation of chairman Brian McGowan and chief executive Doug Flynn at Rentokil came as a surprise to some, but given the series of recent profit warnings and share price collapse over the last year, action clearly needed to be taken. The response by the market has been to mark the shares up a hefty 17%, but we would caution about being carried away. This smacks of the initial reaction to last year's changes at ITV, and it might take more than simply a boardroom change to sort out the structural problems here |
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