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Politics and the housebuilders

Politics and the housebuilders
April 29, 2015
Politics and the housebuilders

And this year was likely to maintain this amazing track record which is why I recommended jumping the gun and buying into the sector early ('A standing dish', 25 November 2014). Fast forward 14 weeks and the average share price gain on the nine listed builders was a thumping 20 per cent by early March, almost five times greater than the return on the FTSE All-share index. This was the cue to bank profits on four of the companies – Bovis (BVS), Redrow (RDW), Galliford Try (GFRD) and Crest Nicholson (CRST) (‘Housebuilders: trading bumper gains’, 9 March 2015). It proved the right decision in hindsight as shares in each company had hit technical resistance and subsequently failed to make any further headway between early March and the end of the month which is when I had originally recommended closing these short-term trading positions. On average shares in the four companies lost 3.4 per cent in value in the last three weeks of March.

FTSE 350 Housebuilders price performance (25 November 2014 to 5 March 2015)

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