THE TIPSTER UPTICK PUTS MPC DECISION IN FOCUS
FOLLOWING last week’s gloomy forecasts from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), spread betters will be watching the Bank of England’s policy decision on Thursday closely.
While rates are expected to remain on hold at 0.5 per cent and quantitative easing at £175bn, investors will listen carefully to see what they’ll say about future growth prospects and how this might affect the pound. Any bullish comments might allow cable (sterling-US dollar) to test the $1.7000 mark again. Capital Spreads is quoting $1.6360-$1.6363.
The UK housing market is also starting to show signs of stabilisation and Morgan Stanley says that the downside in UK property values looks sufficiently small to start looking at the next cycle.
The broker sees scope for a 10 per cent bounce in UK property values by the end of 2010 and upgrades Land Securities to overweight from equalweight while lifting the price target to 560p from 260p. IG Index has a December spread of 473.1p-477.1p.
Shares in miner Lonmin are on track to attempt to break through the May intra-day high of 1,612p. RBC Capital has upgraded Lonmin to outperform from sector perform and it thinks that with the Xstrata and Anglo American merger looking ever less likely, a Lonmin acquisition seems all the more probable. The miner will also benefit from the latest surge in metals prices and the relative undervaluation of its shares. IG Index has a spread of 1,565.4p-1569.6.
Mike Ashley may have been getting headlines recently for his efforts in trying to sell Newcastle United, but this week his company Sports Direct will come back into focus when it issues a trading update. Shares jumped by more than 8 per cent on Friday to a high of just below 100p on anticipation of positive figures. ShortsandLongs.com has a rolling spread of 96.8p-98.1p.
In the small-caps arena, medical food specialist Provexis last week saw its share price drop back to 10p after huge gains the previous week on the back of takeover talk and hopes of a deal for its Fruitfrow product. With more news to come on both issues, spread betters believe there could be potential for further future gains. Spreadex has a December spread of 9.75p-10.38p.