HMV continues to perform well on the high street thanks to its large music and video game selection, when compared to its competitors. The company has seen its market share increase over the past twelve months and has been rewarded with a 25% rise in full year pre-tax profits. Despite the good news, its shares continue to trade around the 100p marker, which is at the bottom end of its 52 week range. Given the positive results, HMV could be one of the few retailers that still offers some value.

As expected, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee have kept interest rates on hold at 5%. With inflation at 3.3% against a target of 2% this was the only decision the MPC were likely to take, despite incresing economic concerns and fears that the UK could be entering a recession. If there are further signs of a downturn, the Bank must be prepared to act quickly and cut rates.

Today it was the turn of Bovis Homes and Redrow to add to the doom and gloom of the housing sector. Both companies will cut 40% of their workforce which will mean 400 job losses for Bovis, whilst Redrow will shed 550 posts. Read the rest of this entry »

Marks & Spencers share price has fallen 35% since last Monday. Losing another 4% today, analysts expressed concerns that profits could fall by more than one third this year. In 2007 M&S made £1bn, but 2008 could see this drop to as low as £600m. Such news has made the market very cautious about the stock and has left the retailer with a lot of work to do to regain investor confidence.

Existing shareholders of Bradford & Bingley - Insight Investment, Legal & General, M&G and Standard Life - will purchase £400m worth of new shares following the withdrawal of Texas Pacific Groups (TPG) offer to buy 23% of the British Bank.

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News that Taylor Wimpey failed to secure additional funding of some £500m, coupled with having to shed 900 jobs, sent the share price sharply down today. The shares ended the day down 25p (41%) at 35p, with intra-trading lows bottoming at a 57% loss. Read the rest of this entry »

The FTSE ended the week at 5,529.90 taking the fall for the first half of the year to 14.4%, the worst performance of the index since 1994 when it fell 14.6%. The continued sell-off of stocks came as oil hit $142.69 a barrel, news which reverberated around world markets. Analysts had initially predicted a poor start to the year, but with better prospects for the second half of 2008, however this optimism is waning and so it could be a bumpy ride all the way in to 2009.