THOUGHT FOR FRIDAY 11TH JANUARY 2008
From top share author MALCOLM STACEY
Hello Gang,
I was hoping that the Bank of England people would have cropped the interest rate a bit. That would have helped bank shares along - including Northern Rock (NRK).
A cut would also have helped out the big chain stores, the pubs, the travel companies and, well, nearly every company out there.
Still, the 'experts' tells me that the Bank of England will be a little more generous in the months to come, possibly ending up with a bank rate of only 4%.
That will be a jolly good thing. Except that it might increase house prices again, which often damps down the price of smaller shares, as private investors switch into buy for rent properties instead.
On the vexed question of shops and their share price, I'm told that the January sales are seeing huge reductions, which will hit profits. Well, in my neck of the woods, there is hardly any price-slashing going on at all - and yet the tills are still tinkling. So maybe I'll buy a few shop shares, starting with Marks and Sparks (MKS).
The internet shops are also a possible bargain for share hunters, though some, like ASOS (ASC), are rocketing on hopes that internet shopping will soon take over from High Street forays, if it hasn't done so already.
So there we are gang, a few punts on shops again. But I won't leave my money in them for too long, because times are a-changing and so are shopping habits. And nobody really knows where that will take us in the next ten years.
Though I bet the Punter's Return will still be there. See you in the snug, today?
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