One investor praying for a major revival in the Lloyds Banking Group share price is quarrying and waste management group Water Hall.
Not necessarily because the group has any financing involvement with Lloyds. Rather, the company decided back in September that it was not getting enough interest on its cash deposits, so it decided to use £1.269m of its money to buy shares in Lloyds TSB (as it was). Since then of course the banking sector has, as Water Hall put it last month, "performed badly." Lloyds said it would be buying HBOS, then turned to the government for a bail out which precludes any dividends to shareholders for the foreseeable future.
Water Hall must be wishing it had kept its money in the building society, or underneath the mattress. Its £1.269m investment is worth - at Lloyds current share price of 57p - less than £250,000. That's a £1m loss on a six month investment.
An unkind person would say: stick to the quarrying business, and keep clear of the stock market.
