More Greece, more value shares, and why structured products are rubbish

By Jonathan Eley, 22 February 2012

Yesterday, we looked at what might happen if - as many still expect - Greece is eventually booted out of the euro. Several readers commented that we didn't offer enough practical advice, so let me remedy that right now. If Greece exits, there'll be turmoil in the markets - and whenever that happens, you get a rush to safe havens: Treasuries, gilts, gold and the Swiss franc. So although stock markets are doing well, I wouldn't rush to move money out of fixed-income and into shares. Also, I'd avoid bank shares - that sector's halcyon days are well and truly over. Finally, I'd be minded to keep lots in cash. It's not sexy and it's losing value in real terms. But a small and known loss is sometimes better than the possibility of a large unexpected one - plus, you'll have plenty on hand to go bargain-hunting if share prices do take a tumble. And well they might; today we take a look at warnings that the ECB's long-term refinancing operations are merely papering over the cracks on bank balance sheets, and that the stock market rally might come juddering to a halt once it becomes apparent that the collateral banks have pledged to the ECB is compromised. Elsewhere, Algy Hall runs another stock screen and finds a stack of companies whose shares yield more than 5 per cent on well-covered dividends. We take a look at Dragon Oil's possible bid for BowLeven and cracking results from pawn broker Albemarle & Bond and construction group Galliford Try (shares at a year high, but still well worth buying). Finally, Santander was fined this week for failing to disclose compensation arrangements on structured products. The episode illustrates just how rubbish most of these are; they're shockingly poor value, and in most cases just substitute market risk for counterparty risk.

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