Tuesday, 25 March 2008

Bear (Stearns) Rally?

Ho ho ho. First trading day after being amazed at how many bargains are out there, and there's a pretty substantial jump in all the stocks I thought were cheap:
TW: up 12%
RBS: up 9.3%
WMH: up 6.75%
TPK: up 6%
LAD: up 5.5%
RSDB: up 2.5%

So is this the end of the bear market? I don't think so. TW is up on better than expected US housing data, but I'm still pessimistic on the UK housing market, so I think that's only temporary. RBS is up on the Bear Stearns bailout being raised to $10 per share - that could well be a permanent rally in bank stocks. No idea why WMH and LAD are up. TPK is clearly following the housebuilders. No idea about RDSB - just bouncing back after a pre-easter fall?

I think:
  • House prices will fall in the UK over the next 2 years.
  • The UK will go into recession over the next 2 years.

Based on that opinion, I think we haven't seen the bottom for TW, TPK, WMH and LAD. I could well believe that RBS has seen its lowest price this year, since it is ridiculously oversold. I have no idea about RDSB, but it's still cheap even after today's bounce (30% discount to my valuation).

I think I will wait and see. At a 40% discount things will just be too tempting, but at 25-30% I'm happy to wait.

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