Comments on: A quick look at 52 week high and low stock prices: March 2009

By: Greg Atkinson

Greg Atkinson — Sun, 24 May 2009 15:25:55 +0000

8020..have you been tempted by any “tasty” stocks?

By: Senator13

Senator13 — Thu, 07 May 2009 07:40:48 +0000

Why is that?

By: narbs12

narbs12 — Thu, 07 May 2009 05:04:59 +0000

Pan Australian Resources (PNA) I hear could be on the move and one worth watching.

By: Senator13

Senator13 — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:44:41 +0000

I hope there are no more nasty surprises from the Banks because at current levels they are looking fairly good. I agree with 8020 that over the next 6 months will be a good indication of where things are at.

If there are no more cutting of dividends and earnings remain steady then there could be some good value in the Banks.

By: 8020 Financial

8020 Financial — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 04:30:09 +0000

@Pete
Visit here for details of the Karachi exchange price floor: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601084&sid=aSz3qf2xfS14
If I understand it correctly any order below the floor was simply not accepted by the exchange.
You are right this policy would be disastrous for the real economy -- essentially it is a subsidy to bad companies, and the larger and savvier investors would withdraw their money from a market regulated like this at the first opportunity, destroying liquidity.
But I do believe such an action by the Australian government is well within the realm of possibility. While it would be irresponsible and short-sighted, it would also be popular.

@ Greg
Agree a lot of the drop is due to margin calls. The PE ratios on a lot of the ASX 100 companies do look very tasty at the moment. But for me personally, I wouldn’t play, or at least not as a buy and holder. I think it really depends on what happens to corporate earnings over the next 3-6 months.

By: Greg Atkinson

Greg Atkinson — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:41:47 +0000

8020 I think at lot of the turmoil has been caused by the explosion in margin loans over the last say 5 years; this hit a lot of people from high flyers (like “fast Eddy”) to people who were probably told by their finanical adviser that borrowing to invest in shares was “tax effective”. However there are the long term hold investors as well and they will provide a fairly strong level of support..I just have no idea of where that level is. Also note that the buyers are starting to creep in..I think the takeover offer for MCG is first of many we will see. Not everyone in the world is broke..there are plenty of cashed up companies out there. (and plenty it seems in China and Japan)

By: Pete

Pete — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:13:00 +0000

8020: How did Pakistan set a floor on stock prices? Do they simply make a law that says “stocks shall not be traded below the 52 week low?” or something?

That would surely be an economy destroyer? Share market volumes would dwindle as no buyers can be found to buy overpriced companies (relative to P/E ratios, etc), and therefore people can’t sell their shares. Imagine if you ‘had to’ liquidate at all costs (eg, insolvency) but there were zero buyers?

Perhaps I have it all wrong

By: 8020 Financial

8020 Financial — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:50:47 +0000

What strikes me about this is how big the fall on most of these so called blue-chips has been. The bulk of my money (including super) has been in cash since 2007 but I can’t help feeling genuine sympathy for people who’ve sat by and watched their life savings vanish. Woolies seems the pick of the bunch, having *only* lost 25% or so (I know its recovered slightly recently).

I don’t how it plays out from here. If the current rally turns sucker and we experience another fall of similar magnitude in the next 6-12 months it could be catastrophic -- particularly with our interventionist government. Pakistan set a floor to stock prices last August -- I could imagine the RuddSwan doing the same.