| Traders reaping FTSE 100 bounce back |
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| Written by Sam Coventry | |
| Monday, 23 November 2009 10:57 | |
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The dip in the FTSE 100 at the end of last week proved to be a good entry point for savvy traders. The FTSE 100 (INDEXFTSE:.FTSE) is 1.66% up at 5,338.33 points at 10:50am GMT. Commodity prices are up this morning, and as a result all the top movers on the FTSE 100 are mining stocks. Fresnillo (LON:FRES) leads the index with 4.68% worth of gains, followed by Eurasian Natural (LON:ENRC) up 4.67%. Gold prices are up once again, touching new highs, the result is Randgold Resources (LON:RRS) is up 4.44%. "We commence the week strongly and once again bounce after a few days of declines with clients reaping the rewards of buying into last week's dip. Just when it looks like the market has got a little over stretched and a correction is expected to follow, the market maintains its momentum and heads higher again," says Simon Denham at London Capital Group. So this morning the market is heading back towards the highs and it's takeover fever that's gripping investors as other potential suitors for Cadburys emerge from the wood work and the likelihood of a bid war becomes more real. With the share price now above £8 Cadbury's shareholders need to be wary of getting too greedy and their potential buyers simply walking away. Just as we saw with Sainsbury in 2007 when the stock rose from £4 to £6 amid takeover talks, by October the deal fell apart and the stock plummeted back to £4. It then suffered the fate of the stock market crash to hit a low of £2.50 and is now hovering at just over half the price of its 2007 high. Cadburys is in a similarly competitive market and they have to be careful that they don't suffer the same fate as Sainsbury's did by seeing the deal scuppered and have their share price languishing at half what it is now. FTSE corporate newsOil explorer Soco's confidence over its Viodo prospect, offshore Congo, has been boosted after an encouraging latest test drilling. The Viodo Marine 4 vertical appraisal well tested at a combined maximum flow rate of approximately 2,600 barrels of oil per day and 7m standard cubic feet of gas per day following two drill stem tests, Soco said. Credit checking firm Experian has created a joint venture with seven of India’s leading financial institutions to operate a credit information company in India. On the downside, the water companies are under pressure ahead of Ofwat's final delibration on Thursday for the next five-year regulatory review. It is expected to be tough with warnings already of rights issues and dividend cuts. Severn Trent and United Utilities are the worst hit. Today, Northumbrian Water said the outcome of Ofwat's final determination is "the key risk for the business." Half year pre-tax profits rise to £87m from £77.1m. The dividend was lifted to 4.39p from 4.29p. There was plenty of activity among second line oil stocks. Shares in Kurdistan-focused oil group Gulf Keystone gained as it reported further large discoveries on its Shaikan-1 prospect. Heritage Oil shareholders could be in for a windfall after the company terminated its merger discussions with Genel and opted instead to sell some assets to Italian oil giant Eni. The UK exploration and production company has conditionally agreed to sell its interests in blocks 1 and 3A in Uganda for $1.5bn. 
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 23 November 2009 11:01 ) |