The bulls seem unstoppable at the moment with solid gains around the world's stock markets for another week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, ended up 9 points at 10,850 after being as high as 68 points higher. The index was up 1% for the week. The Dow Industrials, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite all ended with a fourth week of gains, the longest positive run for all three indexes since the summer of 2009. The FTSE 100 finished down 24 points at 5,703. The index was up 53 points, or nearly 1% for the week.
The market responded positively to the news that the Euro zone countries had agreed a plan to bail out Greece together with the International Monetary Fund, driving the euro to a 10 month high against the dollar. On Friday afternoon, debt rating agency, Standard & Poor, confirmed it's rating on Greece.
Gw Pharma (GWP - After last week's strong gains in GW Pharma on a positive regulatory update on Saticex and good trials results for the future U.S. application in cancer pain, the share price has dropped strongly from it's highs close to 130p to finish the week at 113p. This fall came despite Prudential increasing their holding from 10% to 12%. After selling down 3/4 of my holding close to the highs, Contrarian Investor UK bought back at lower levels. News on the completion of the national phase of the UK and Spanish applications should be available around the time of the May interims so it's a case of sitting tight for now and waiting for further news flow. Licensing deals in territories outside North America and Europe should also be announced in Q2.
Falkland Island Oil Explorers (Desire Petroleum, Falklands Oil and Gas, Borders and Southern Petroleum, Rockhopper Exploration) - As discussed on a previous post, I have sold my Desire Petroleum (DES) holding and moved into RockHopper Exploration (RKH) and increased my holding in Falkland Oil and Gas (FOGL) in order to be able to use IG Markets CFD guaranteed stops in case things don't go quite to plan next week. Protected trades, limiting any loss to 12.5%, were not possible on Desire for some time. News from the South Atlantic should be due Wednesday onwards on drilling of Desire's Liz field (but perhaps earlier but all conjecture). But it now seems plausible that Desire are testing the well because as a reminder the addendum to the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) issued in December 2009 stated (http://www.desireplc.co.uk/pdfs/DesireFalklands_EIS_Adndm.pdf), "It is anticipated that the Ocean Guardian semi-submersible rig will be on location for between 18 and 30 days for each we and an additional 7-10 days if the well is tested. The earliest spud date for the first well is 1 February 2010. It is currently proposed to test the wells if hydrocarbons are found. During the well test up to up to 8,000stb/d of oil or 25MMscf/d of gas will be flared dependent on the reservoir fluids encountered and if the reservoir is found to be capable of delivering these rates...". Given it will be 35 days since the Liz prospect "spudded" on Monday (spud was 22nd February 2010), it is possible that Desire are testing the well and they would not be testing if there was nothing substantial in terms of an oil/gas find. On the other hand, drilling to target depth might have been delayed by unforeseen events, which of course is always possible in offshore drilling campaigns. Should be an exciting week either way - keeping my fingers crossed it's not a "duster".
ITV (ITV) - After a near 10% move upwards this week from 55p to 60p, I took the opportunity to sell off the position. There has been a significant shift upwards from the 50p level in february as Crozier/Norman have taken charge and the advertising market continues to improve.
Coal of Africa (CZA) - A steady move up in CZA to finish the week at 146p as main market listing in the UK is due in the next few weeks. After a wobble, where the share price dropped as much as 7p on rumours that the Vele mine project approval might be compromised by enviromental protestors, the stock recovered to finish broadly flat. Contrarian Investor UK is expecting a move up closer to 200p during Q2.
ARM (ARM) - Chip designer ARM holdings continued to move up to a 52 week high as tech stocks stay in demand which has squeezed the short. However, the 5% stop loss on the sell has not yet been triggered and on anticipation of a market correction this position may come back in my favour. Holding for now.
SSL International (SSL) - After a positive trading update yesterday (see previous post), SSL moved over the £8 level and triggered a stop loss on the short. This illustrates the problem with shorting shares in this short of market where momentum investors are piling in. With this sort of market, fundamental analysis of a company's value can be for nothing.
Genzyme (GENZ) - Pharmaceutical company Genzyme dropped over 14% in 2 days on concerns over an FDA sanction of a key plans. An initial position was stopped out but I bought back on Thursday night as the stock hit $51. This buy was rewarded with a bounce back on Friday as brokers started saying the FDA related fall had been overdone. Shareholder activist, Carl Icahn remains key to a rejuvenation of this company.
