Today's market overview
Equity markets look sickly again this morning and The Trader Dominic Picarda see signs in the charts that we could be on the cusp of something ‘mega bearish’.
IC TIP UPDATES:
BP’s (
BP
.) Russian joint venture TNK-BP is healthily profitable but has rarely been anything but trouble. So it is not surprising that its shares are up today on news that it is exploring the sale of its stake in the venture, even though that has potentially worrying implications for BP’s future presence in one of the world’s most oil rich regions. We remain buyers for now.
Victoria Oil & Gas (
VOG
) has completed the pipeline from its gas field in Cameroon to the local city of Duoala, which gives it access to industrial customers. The company has raised £3m from investors and drawn down some debt to help fund some of its potential customers’ conversion of their facilities to receive gas. Revenues should begin to flow in July, so we keep the shares on a buy.
West end property has remained buoyant throughout the downturn, that is why we remain buyers of Great Portland Estates (
GPOR
) and it has added to its West End portfolio with the £39m acquisition of two properties in St James’ which could offer future development potential.
Phorm (
PHRM
) has been a sell tip of ours for so long we’d almost forgotten about the company which created such controversy with its technology that monitors internet usage on behalf of advertisers to allow targeted ad campaigns. But the company has built a business of reasonable scale in Brazil and is now looking to make headway in China. It is raising £20m to pour into Phorm China, which now has a value of £100m. Investors have woken up today and the shares are up 30 per cent on this news. Still, at 80p, they remain a pale shadow of the 1,713p level when we sold them in 2008.
KEY STORIES
BP Marsh & Partners, (
BPM
) identified by Simon Thompson as a value buy back in January, provides venture capital to financial services businesses and one of its portfolio companies, Hyperion Insurance, has acquired Lloyd’s of London broker Windsor.
Martin Lewis has made a name for himself as an expert on finances and he’s got a lot more money to think about himself now after selling his MoneySavingExpert website to Moneysupermarket (
MONY
) for £87m in cash and shares.
OTHER COMPANY NEWS:
Plus Markets Group (
PMK
) is suddenly in demand, or at least its registered stock exchange is. The company recently announced it was selling the exchange to ICAP for a nominal fee but has also received interest from Gulf Merchant Bank, although management is minded to stick with the ICAP offer for now.
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