Trading and Spread Betting on the Construction & Materials Sector

Construction

The CleanFinancial.com guide to construction sector spread betting.




Where Can I Trade the Construction & Materials Sector?

You can currently spread bet on the construction & materials sector with: Note that you may be able to speculate on this sector through other brokers.

Construction & Materials Sector Constituents

As of 19 Dec 2017, the following companies make up the FTSE 350 construction & materials sector: To check which firms are currently in the sector, see FTSE 350 construction & materials sector.

For more details on a particular firm, click on the relevant construction / construction materials company above.


Speculating on the Housing Market

Investors should note that you can also spread bet on the average UK house price.

For more details see our guide to spread betting on house prices.


Analysis of the Construction & Materials Market

Below, we have a number of articles which talk about the sector.

Readers should note that many of the market conditions will have changed since the analysis was written and, likewise many of the fundamental arguments will no longer apply.

Nevertheless, because the analysis talks through many of the factors that positively and negatively impact these companies we feel it’s still useful if you are new to trading this sector.

Time to Buy the Big Construction Companies?

Below, an article by Simon Denham, Financial Spreads, 17-Jul-08.

Looking at the disaster which has been the UK centric portion of the FTSE 350 over recent months it is tempting to perhaps take a step back and wonder if the whole thing has been rather overdone.

Yes we know that people are feeling the pinch, that retail sales are down, that banks were sucked into the huge mortgage fraud over in the States, that petrol is now almost as expensive as bottled water(!), that we have a government which has dodged any difficult fiscal decision for eleven years, that house prices look to be sliding from their highs etc.

However, on the plus side, most retail, building and bank stocks have now reached levels which seem to be indicating that all these factors are almost terminal for everyone.

Yields on many of the aforementioned sectors are now eye-watering and although we can be sure that some will see their dividends cut the same is not true of all.

Those who had high dividend cover in the first place or have indicated that business, whilst not exactly stunning, is still winging along at a respectable pace or those that have little or no borrowings to weigh them down in these credit crunch days should all be eyed from an acquisition point of view rather than a ‘get out at all costs’.

Ok, the economy looks to be about to drop off a cliff and the finances of UK plc are not exactly conducive to buying into Gilts but many shell-shocked stocks seem to have priced in this having already happened.

Big funds like to say that they trade from the viewpoint of the economy in six months to a year’s time so it is not a flight of fancy to see that the perception for the economy over the coming months is not exactly bright.

The one really major long-term problem, which might materially affect the performance of Britain as a whole, is the continued delay in up-grading our power supply situation.

Many of our Power Stations are now close to being obsolete and are reaching their safe limits but the government continues to waffle and delay over the creation of new ones. From a political point of view this is understandable as Power Stations are not exactly popular things to have on voters’ doorsteps but this is what establishments must do…push through difficult decisions for the long term greater good.

At the moment the government seems to be wondering around some ‘green utopia’ continually bleating on about (and signing up to) sustainable energy sources (because they think it goes down well with the man on the street).

At the same time they seem to be ignoring the fact that, in the UK, the cost of building up to the required 15% renewable target level is ruinously expensive.

And, even so, 15% leaves 85% from our old friends Coal, Oil and Nuclear.

The economy of the UK cannot run or grow without reliable energy production.

And this brings me onto the one bright spot in the pantheon of UK stocks…the big construction companies.

We might get used, in the UK, to hearing about disasters over cost overruns on some rail project or another but these problems are, in the main, politically inspired as governments continually alters the specs (remember Wembly and Metronet).

But across the globe the expertise of the British (often Scottish) big project managers shows in the share prices of companies such as Atkins and Weir.

In the UK there must soon be some really monumental infrastructure construction growth as we finally bite the bullet of public disapproval and push through planning on essential upgrades.

New rail lines, new roads, new power stations, new water plants and sewer works, more refinery capacity etc the list goes on and on concerning the requirements for the creaking British infrastructure.

The economy has focused almost exclusively for some 30 years on the ‘consumer’. Wonderful new shopping malls, bright new housing developments, entertainment coming out of our ears on just about any subject you care to name.

The clock is ticking on the infrastructure on which all of this ultimately depends.

So it might not be the shell-shocked stocks which look the best value, possibly those riding high at the moment have further to go.