Is the FSA getting carried away in all the excitement? There are not 29 quoted companies on the regulator's list, issued this morning, but 28.
Insurer Resolution was taken over by privately owned rival Pearl in May after a bitter bid battle. Resolution driving force Clive Cowdery kept the rights to the name and plans to float an acquisition vehicle later this year.
But at the moment there is no listed Resolution entity for anyone to short.
Over to the FSA. "We thought Resolution was just suspended, not delisted," said a spokeswoman. "It will be removed. A revised list will be up on our website later today."
Ooops. Nice to see financial market regulation is in safe hands.
Meanwhile, analysts at KBC Peel Hunt have suggested a few possible additions to the famous list.
They said: "We note that not on this list are the following stocks: Amlin, Cattles, Close Brothers, Hansard, Hiscox, Hardy Intermediate Capital, and Paragon. We expect the management of these companies to ask the FSA to be included in the scope of this regulation. We see a good case and investors should close their shorts on all these stocks as a precaution."
