Wednesday 22 December 2010

Wed 22 Dec: National Grid opening higher

9:00 First log in this morning and I notice some very odd movements on National Grid. It could be a residue of trading from yesterday and/or market makers but it looks like the first big trade of the day went through at 8:00am: 719,000 shares sold at 590 which suggests that NG opened at +26p! 
By 8:05 the price had settled to a more normal 5.71 +7. 

Elsewhere lots of opinion around sovereign debts with The Daily Telegraph reporting that Citigroup (our star broker yesterday), is warning that the EU needs to come up with a credible plan. It goes on to report that "Prof Willem Buiter, the bank's chief economist, said the eurozone was paralysed by a "game of chicken" between the European Central Bank and EMU governments". Always nice to see these guys put their reputations on the line by stating the bleeding obvious! 
On a serious note, it is a huge ethical concern for me that with the banking industry having had such a key role in causing the crisis, and continuing to to be a major beneficiary in any recovery these kinds of comments always sound like they are prodding someone else for the solution rather than being pro-active and contributing to one.

Unhappy Sky Subscriber! 

Closer to home: Vince Cable could well have lost the halo of credibility that he wore during the election campaign with his unguarded comments on Rupert Murdoch's attempt to take full control of BSkyB. His concerns could well be valid but having been secretly recorded the suggestion is that he may have a "personal" agenda which obviously affects his impartiality in any BSkyB decision. Who knows, he might just be a concerned Sky subscriber exercising his opinion so it will be interesting to see if Sky loses his subscription should any take over occur (doh!). 
Anyway, joking aside, BSkyB is currently 744 +15 following news that Vince Cable has been taken out of any decision making process on the takeover. 
It is starting to look all to easy for Mr Murdoch as the obstacles to take over appearing to remove themselves.

At the close:
  • the FTSE 100 finished at 5983.49 +31.69
  • NG closed at 573.5 +9.5
  • BSkyB closed at 743 +14.5

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