Lloyds Banking Group Shares Leading the Way
Financial Market Comments from David Jones, IG Index.
At mid-morning in London, we have seen a positive start to the week with the FTSE 100 up by around 20 points.
Lloyds Banking Group is near the top of blue chip gainers for the day. This is on the back of news that Chairman Victor Blank plans to step down from the role next year – following the criticism resulting from the HBOS takeover the gesture could be seen as Blank falling on his own sword.
At the moment many are expecting this jump by the share price to be just a one day wonder and a not signal for new found enthusiasm for banking shares – the strong sentiment behind the sector has waned over the past couple of weeks, following the impressive gains seen since March.
Thomas Cook is the best performer on the day so far with its price up by around 9%. The end of last week saw it report revenues up around 12% for the first six months, suggesting it has weathered the storm much better than many were expecting for the travel sector.
Since November last year, the Thomas Cook share price has risen by around 80%. At the moment some traders seem to be banking on this recovery continuing and eyeing a run back to the highs for this year, just above 300p.
Looking ahead to the US open, at the moment we expect the Dow Jones to start around 10 points higher than Friday’s close.
There is nothing of any note on the American economic calendar today so it could well be a quiet session ahead, continuing the lack of any meaningful direction seen for most of last week.
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Good Luck!
DB
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May 18, 2009 No Comments