Recent content by BlueIndex

Solid Silver Service May 27th, 2009 It’s no secret that miners have for the most part enjoyed a strong recovery in 2009. Silver miner Fresnillo (FRES) in particular has produced one of those terrific top right hand corner charts that look so good in annual reports and presentations :) For the...

Aveva Turnaround May 26th, 2009 With a few notable exceptions such as Autonomy (AU.), IT firms have been hit as hard as any during the credit crunch, as companies cutback all but the most essential expenditure But another shining example emerged this morning of an IT company coping well with...

British Airways and the Perfect Storm May 22nd, 2009 On April 27th I wrote about British Airways (BAY) weakness, see British Airways Weakness as regards the swine flu outbreak, but I suggested watching out for a sharp rebound in the event of positive news. Shares did recover somewhat, but...

Upside Stateside for Balfour Beatty May 21st, 2009 Along with nearly everything else, construction firms have taken a hammering during the Credit Crunch, with axed contracts, delays and in some cases non-payment. UK engineering and construction group Balfour Beatty (BBY) have proved to be a...

Not so mellow Yellow May 20th, 2009 Having some knowledge of the directory industry, like many I thought the precipitous share price drop at Yell (YELL) was overdone, and particularly at the 12p or so it sank to, it looked an absolute no brainer bargain. Many other investors clearly thought so...

Marks & Spencer shorting opportunity May 19th, 2009 In contrast to my Sparks at Marks blog on 31st March ( see Sparks at Marks | Blue Index CFD Blog ) I think a short term opportunity now exists to sell M&S shares for the next few weeks, possibly months. The flagship retailer reported a 40...

All-MITIE May 18th, 2009 Further evidence emerged today of how companies are outsourcing to save money. Building services group MITIE Group (MTO) reported a 12 percent hike in annual pre-tax profits to GBP75.9m, on revenues ahead 8.2 percent to GBP1.5bn. Additionally, MITIE’s forward order book...

Don’t bet on Ladbrokes May 15th, 2009 Shares in bookmaker Ladbrokes (LAD) were looking like a good recovery play up to this morning, having regained over 50% of their value after the October low of 133p last year But this morning, Ladbrokes reported a 34% slump in profits for the first four...

BT Group and the Global Services Millstone May 14th, 2009 The mauling of BT Group (BT.A) on fundamentals continues unabated after the UK fixed line telecommunications group announced further impairment charges from its disastrous Global Services division of GBP280m for Q4, along with an...

Rip Roaring Compass May 13th, 2009 Hats off to British catering group Compass (CPG); this morning the group announced their best-ever set of interim figures Interim profits to March 31st, soared 40% to GBP405m from GBP289m last time, while EBIT, EBIT margins and free cashflow shot up 33% to...

Checking Out 12th May 2009 Never having been a huge fan of hotel stocks, (for no rational reason I hasten to ad), I see an opportunity to go short of hotel operator International Hotels (IHG) today The hotel operator unveiled a sharp fall in Q1 operating profits which fell to USD69m from...

Ashtead Vulnerable May 11th, 2009 The signs are there that things may be bottoming out for the housing market and in particular housebuilders. Plant hire group Ashtead (AHT) has fared well in recent weeks, as the fortunes of its business depends heavily on the strength of the construction...

Treble Relief May 8th, 2009 Having been involved at various levels with business incubators and fledgling firms, I am a fan of companies like 3i (III) because they invest in the future of business. This is often a fraught and time consuming process, but get it right and occasionally it can be...

Hi tafita. My stop on BATS is at 1496 thanks Blue Index :|

Barclays Harvest II May 7th, 2009 Astonishingly, shares in Barclays (BARC) have nearly doubled since my last blog post some 6 weeks ago. While this is fantastic news for relieved shareholders, I have spoken to many traders and pundits with bruised and battered legs, who have been kicking...