The day's market rally continues apace with the FTSE 100 now up more than 100 points, but could Sunday's World Cup final prove its downfall?
According to Gary Jenkins, head of fixed income at Evolution Securities, we should be backing Spain and Uruguay in this week's semi-finals. Why? To try and avoid another market meltdown, if history is any judge. Jenkins says:
For the sake of the equity market, let's just hope that the semi finals do not result in an Holland v Germany final. That last occurred in 1974, in which year the Dow was down 29% that year...23% after the final...and the Dow is down 7% this year so far.....it's all rather worrying...
It's perhaps not the most serious indicator, and at the moment, investors are concentrating on more fundamental issues, having clearly decided the market's recent decline has left it oversold. The FTSE 100 is currently up 108.45 points at 4931.98 with miners higher on metal price rises and banks ahead on hopes they will pass the forthcoming stress tests. A successful gilts auction has helped sentiment, with the UK debt management office announcing a £3.25bn sale of 2020 gilts was covered 2.45 times.
Back with the World Cup for a moment, pubs group Punch Taverns has added 3.35p to 67.9p after it reported like for like sales growth during the tournament, although for obvious reasons it was cautious on the overall outlook.
But online gambling group PartyGaming - up 19.4p to 240.2p - issued a reassuring update despite saying it had been hit by the football tournament. What it called "relatively unexpected results" had helped its sports betting business, but other divisions - notably poker - has suffered more than had been forecast, as punters concentrated on the football.
The company also said it continued to look at consolidation opportunites. It is widely reported to have held merger talks with Austria's Bwin.
Heading lower however was home shopping group N Brown, down 11.5p at 243.4p as it reported like for like sales for the 18 weeks to 3 July were up just 0.1%. It said:
Trading since the general election has been subdued as customers assess the likely impact on their personal situation of the coalition government's new policies.
