Should I sell my Lloyds TSB shares now?

97trophy

Andrew64 wrote: »

I had Lloyds TSB shares, but I sold them a month ago as I was angry about this pointless merger with HBOS.

You did well.

The merger seems nothing but bad news for Lloyds.

Trollfever

Shares in Lloyds Banking Group lost almost half their value today amid sharply increased fears that the Government could have to take full control of at least one financial institution before the end of the [strike]year. [/strike]month. (My edit)
Lloyds Banking Group, which comprises Lloyds TSB and HBOS after they officially merged yesterday, saw its shares dive by nearly 50 per cent at one point before falling by 27.38 per cent to 47.2p.
Traders said the market was only beginning to digest yesterday's update from the newly merged bank, which they interpreted as a veiled profits warning.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article5552785.ece

:mad:

sabretoothtigger

Even lower today, banks are weird in their value and it seems there is no way to work out what these should be worth if anything.

Someone mentioned no dividends but last I heard is the idea of a scrip issue

Even if they gave no dividend this spring like barclays has said and instead put the money into buying back the preference shares at only 1% cost this would help the share price surely

I read a treasury MP declared lloyds should be seized and run for the people. I think he needs to go back to russia.

you should view their valuation at present, not assets but a bet or option. Bet money is fairly small, you put a tenner on for a horse to win or whatever and your ready to lose it all of course

I think thats best how to view it and this is possible as Halifax is offering zero commission for lloyds shares purchases, you can literally buy a tenners worth if you like.
Later if you want to sell, they also offer to sell any share worth below £250 for a fiver commission.

So I reckon its worth a punt on one of the worlds largest banks, I prefer it to the lottery any day

Andrew64

With all this talk of full nationalization, Lloyds shares seem very risky at the moment.

DocProc

If Lloyds Banking Group does have to be fully nationalised and completely taken over by the Government, this would mean that, once the decision has been made the shares are immediately suspended.

This would mean that they cannot be traded any longer. You can neither buy them nor sell them.

If you canot sell the shares or buy them either, then by definition, they are worthless.

So anyone who has any of them at present and is wondering what to do (ie. Sell them or Hold them) has to more accurately make a personal decision about whether or not the Government are or are not going to nationalise Lloyds.

Day by day the decision is being made before your very eyes.

No one at all wants them. The price of late has been dropping like a stone.

My advice would be to bite the bullet and sell. 'Some proceeds' are better than 'No proceeds'. Take the value of 'a week's groceries' or the value of 'a holiday' or the value of 'a few new clothes for your wardrobe'. Any of these is better than 'nothing'.

And, having done it, you will not have to worry about it any more. In fact, in a few days or weeks time, you will have come to terms with what you just had to do - because it did make sense at the time.

And then there is the opposite point of view. "At these prices they must be a bargain". "In a few years' time all will be forgotten and the price will come back."

Well, at this very moment, absolutely no one wants these shares. Not even the Government.

That is the actual reality.

So I personally feel, any views which are to do with 'not selling them' are merely somewhat delusional and to do with a failure to just accept the horror of such actual large losses that would undoubtedly be crystallised by the doing of it.

Once again, my advice again, is to sell. And to sell now, whilst you still can.

I hope that helps.

When you telephone your broker, be prepared with all of your information. If the quantity you hold is large then be prepared to split the total number into smaller bundles.

The volume of LLOY shares currently being traded is massive. As a result the Order Book of Buys and Sells goes a bit haywire as the orders for buying and selling come and go. The result of this is that the Order Book jams up, the shares go into a kind of automatic auction, this clears the jam, and the Order Book can then resume normal trading. This is happening several times per hour and might well happen just as you ring your broker. Just be calm and patient and bear with it. Whilst he is talking to you about your order and cannot do anything other than this, then he cannot be talking to anyone else and doing anything else either. So just stay with it and ask him to just try again. You might be well advised to trade 'At best'. You might well find too, the price is changing up and down by small amounts or maybe pennies whilst you are on the phone. So basically, you would be well advised to just take what you can get.

These are sorry times.

Who would ever have thought that no one wantd to buy or hold the shares of Lloyds Bank and that they are currently only worth a few tens of pence?

We have been very badly let down by our country's and the world's bankers. Very badly let down indeed.

I,_Brian

The people who are panic selling because they think the banks will be nationalised, haven't considered the fact that TBS and Lloyds are carring £4 trillion in debt. Last year the UK's national debt was £500 billion.

If RBS and Lloyds were nationalised, it would destroy the UK economy because the UK government would have its credit rating downgraded, which would kill sterling, shatter the FTSE, and be otherwise economic suicide.

Share price falls can be ridden out, but so long as a bank is solvent, it can operate. It's kind of nuts when people think share price reflects the ability of a company to function.

The bottom line as I see it is that the government could not nationalise the banks, even if it wanted to. If it did, we'd become the next Iceland.

2c.

caveman38

The people who are panic selling because they think the banks will be nationalised, haven't considered the fact that TBS and Lloyds are carring £4 trillion in debt. Last year the UK's national debt was £500 billion.

How big are their assets, ie. mortgages and our savings - bearing in mind they have HBOS who have Halifax.
If nationalised, what takes priority. Savers or paying back debts.

BargainJunky

I have Lloyds shares as a result of the HBOS merger. My HBOS shares were initially free and I reinvested all my dividends into more HBOS shares as I thought I was doing the right thing (they are held in a PEP). Now it appears that it wasnt the right thing to do - I always said I would sell them when they reached £10.00 and that was my big mistake as I didnt and kept them.

I did think last night of selling them all but have decided to sit it out - if I sell I will have lost a huge amount of money and will loose even more if they nationalise. If I sit it out and they dont nationalise I stand a better chance of seeing them increase in value than if I sold them at the really low price that they are today.

I'm sitting it out but thats my view and only you can decide for yourself.

nicko33

DocProc wrote: »

No one at all wants them.
...
Well, at this very moment, absolutely no one wants these shares. Not even the Government.
...
The volume of LLOY shares currently being traded is massive. As a result the Order Book of Buys and Sells goes a bit haywire as the orders for buying and selling come and go.

Who is doing all the buying then, if no one wants them?

hopefulfooluk

BargainJunky wrote: »

I have Lloyds shares as a result of the HBOS merger. My HBOS shares were initially free and I reinvested all my dividends into more HBOS shares as I thought I was doing the right thing (they are held in a PEP). Now it appears that it wasnt the right thing to do - I always said I would sell them when they reached £10.00 and that was my big mistake as I didnt and kept them.

I did think last night of selling them all but have decided to sit it out - if I sell I will have lost a huge amount of money and will loose even more if they nationalise. If I sit it out and they dont nationalise I stand a better chance of seeing them increase in value than if I sold them at the really low price that they are today.

I'm sitting it out but thats my view and only you can decide for yourself.

I can see your viewpoint but be careful about taking this view.

You need to think about your position now, rather than historically. It doesn't matter if you've lost £500k in the last week or if you've made £500k in the last week, If you don't think they are a good investment now, sell them. Don't hold onto them because "I've already lost this much, so I'll hold onto them" - think whether, if you had the amount of cash your shares are worth now in cash, would you invest them in the shares you own? If yes, keep them. If no, sell them.