CFD Traders Diary
Footsie battling to establish a foothold
5/3/2008
It's been a rocky week so far, but last night's late surge in the US has fed through to London, with the FTSE 100 index stocks surging ahead despite around 30 points worth of ex-dividend payments.
There was an interesting story overnight that Liberty International was in talks to team up with a major rival to become the world's largest shopping mall operator. Although no concrete names have been put forward, Australia's Westfield Group and GIC Real Estate, the property arm of Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, have been named as potential suitors, and this is a story that could run for some days with Liberty up 7% mid-morning.
Another interesting stock is ITV, which is a touch ahead after it said it expected to see a 2% increase in net advertising revenues during the first quarter of 2008. Although it posted a 17% drop in 2007 ebitda earnings, the management do sound confident, and it could be an interesting turnaround situation.
On the M&A scene, Melrose increased its offer for FKI to 85p per share, part cash, part shares, and has been given permission to study the rival engineer's books. With rumours of private equity sniffing, the current price of 77p would seem to present an excellent arbitrage opportunity.
