Trades and observations from a British contrarian stock investor

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Friday, May 7, 2010

Coal of Africa confirms Australian super tax has no effect

Coal of Africa (CZA) issued an RNS this morning confirming that the underlying intention of the Australian resources super tax is the levying of tax on profits arising from the exploitation of non-renewable resources located in Australia. Since the company has no operational projects in Australia, it expects no increased taxation charges resulting from the implementation of the tax. The shares are down 3.5% this morning to 122p. The falls of the last week or so seem overdone given this confirmation and with the Mooiplaats project ramping up production and Vele coming on stream CZA looks a great play for significant earnings growth in 2011.

DOW falls close to 1000 points within minutes then bounces

It was an incredible thing to watch last night as the U.S. market plummeted on seemingly nothing more than more negative reaction to the situation in Greece. Within minutes the Dow Jones Industrials had moved from around 250 points down, to being 992 down to hit 9,867 (-9%). FTSE 100 futures went several hundred points lower at the time. The index recovered relatively quickly and finished at 10,520 a decline of 3%. It was the larggest point drop since Feb. 10, 2009 and largest percentage decline since April 20, 2009, according to Dow Jones Indexes. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 82 points, or 3.4%, to 2,319.

The massive fall has been blamed on automated selling and a potential glitch trade. Shares of Procter & Gamble, one of the Dow components, dropped as much as 37% to under $40, but recovered to close down 2.3% at $60.75. Consultancy firm Accenture, fell to a penny before bouncing back to close at $41.09.