Standard Life Shares

sabretoothtigger

SL jumped nicely today at first by about 6%, theres alot of people out there waiting to buy it seems but overall the market thinks the world is ending so it doesnt really matter what this shares prospects are for the moment




Just posting because of an article on Pru, raising capitial to match SL reserves though it is a much larger company afaik.

Shares in the Pru, which generates the bulk of its earnings abroad, soared more than 11 per cent [FRIDAY], leading the FTSE 100 risers yesterday, as investors applauded the higher reserves and stopped worrying that the insurer would be forced into an imminent rights issue.
Related Links

• Prudential loses 7% on fears of payout cuts

• Pru considers sovereign wealth in AIG bid

Shareholders also welcomed better than expected full-year new business results at the Pru, which reported a 5 per cent rise in worldwide group insurance sales to £3.024 billion. In the UK, sales grew to £947 million based on income from insurance premiums.
Prudential said that its capital cushion, most recently reported as £1.2 billion, would now total £2.5 billion. It has agreed with the Financial Services Authority to transfer £300 million of future income from its inherited estate, or the surplus in its with-profits fund, to its capital reserves.
It will release a further £800 million after completing the sale of a legacy insurance book in Taiwan to China Life. The Pru is transferring the book for a nominal one new Taiwan dollar and taking a 10 per cent stake in the Chinese insurance company, valued at about NT$2.8 billion (£56 million).
Mr Thiam said that most of the policies in the Taiwan book offered guaranteed annuity payments. Because they were more risky, they required the Pru to hold substantial reserves, which would be freed as a result of the sale. Shares ended 28.5p higher at 285p.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article5776173.ece



Ftse, insurance, Banking, Pru and SL all ended fairly level on the day today.

sabretoothtigger

Lansdowne Partners, which spent three years gambling on the collapse of Northern Rock, has gambled tens of millions that the share prices of four household-name insurance companies will fall. Lansdowne disclosed yesterday that it had a short position in Prudential, worth about £10.5m; a £26.2m bet against Aviva, owner of Norwich Union; and further gambles against Legal & General (L&G ) and Old Mutual, reports the Times.

Prudential also made gains, up 3¾ to 288¾p after The Sunday Telegraph revealed at the weekend that Clive Cowdery's Resolution has approached the life assurance group to buy its UK business.

Prudential shares rose more than 4% in early dealing yesterday, pulling up other stocks in the insurance sector, amid mounting speculation that its UK insurance business could be the first target of entrepreneur Clive Cowdery's investment vehicle Resolution.

http://www.theherald.co.uk/business/news/display.var.2491238.0.Prudential_rumour_mill_lifts_insurance_sector.php

Harry Nimmo, who runs Standard Life's £275m UK Smaller Companies fund, has extended his record-breaking stint at the head of The Herald's table of top-performing asset managers with Scottish investment houses to 16 consecutive months.

http://www.theherald.co.uk/business/news/display.var.2490939.0.0.php




Pru is twice the size of SL + other stats :whistle:








http://www.digitallook.com/cgi-bin/dlmedia/investing/screening_tools/performance_tables

Palm_Centro

Standard Life originally floated on the 10th July 2006.

sabretoothtigger

True that


Ive posted a TA link before so Im just stating that it shows a strong buy signal for SL at the moment, not my advice just some info for you to digest ,etc

http://uk.stoxline.com/q_uk.php?s=sl.l

Buddy195

Palm_Centro wrote: »

Standard Life originally floated on the 10th July 2006.

Best time to obtain the shares lol. Have watched mine fall in value for god knows how long. Not sure why I've held onto them for so long?

sabretoothtigger

They give a reasonable dividend but holding anything at the moment is not a great idea it seems so just got to hope they dont alter the dividend policy too


I checked the above link which basically does alot of maths to calculate moving averages and in the afternoon its reverted to a hold after the price has fallen back now. Just goes to show its best to rely on your own judgement mostly.



SL has lost yesterdays gains, I would post a chart for the week but it would only show SL has gone nowhere this week.

Believe it or not that means its slightly outperformed the ftse by 1% or so. Its outperformed the life ins sector by about 5% and also banks by 1%

So the market is awful, looks horrible for the future and sl is following it closely but is less volatile (high 10% low -5%) then its peers and is slightly better at keeping its head above water


Negatives would be a new all time low was achieved, the tide is going out still
Positives hopefully are the impending final results and dividend

I'll look for news later I guess but we are in a dead zone afaik

Yorkshireman_3

Buddy195 wrote: »

Best time to obtain the shares lol. Have watched mine fall in value for god knows how long. Not sure why I've held onto them for so long?

Buy some more when they are at a low -- means you can then probably sell at less amount than you currently need to sell at to make a profit. The secret is knowing when to buy and sell wish i knew but im trying in a small way --- sold some in early Dec for £2.78 and then bought some recently for £1.76 hoping they will v soon reach around £2.20 to sell again still optomistic but im still holding alot of these shares long term --- still think in well 18 mths plus they will reach £3 - £4 if all the markets recover and confidence is back -- so basically i agree with sabretoothtigger -- now is the time to buy. Good luck everyone --- soon be Easter time flys when ur getting older :beer:

Yorkshireman_3

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

They give a reasonable dividend but holding anything at the moment is not a great idea it seems so just got to hope they dont alter the dividend policy too


I checked the above link which basically does alot of maths to calculate moving averages and in the afternoon its reverted to a hold after the price has fallen back now. Just goes to show its best to rely on your own judgement mostly.



SL has lost yesterdays gains, I would post a chart for the week but it would only show SL has gone nowhere this week.

Believe it or not that means its slightly outperformed the ftse by 1% or so. Its outperformed the life ins sector by about 5% and also banks by 1%

So the market is awful, looks horrible for the future and sl is following it closely but is less volatile (high 10% low -5%) then its peers and is slightly better at keeping its head above water


Negatives would be a new all time low was achieved, the tide is going out still
Positives hopefully are the impending final results and dividend

I'll look for news later I guess but we are in a dead zone afaik

Sorry have realised you didnt actually recommend a buy --- anyway time will tell -- hope all investors on this link either make some money or dont lose much :beer: regards from sunny Scarborough

sabretoothtigger

I wouldnt aim to recommend anything. Im a total amateur, I have a small background in stats but weigh everything yourself because all news can be taken two ways

What I post here is a form of revision, legible and consistent views hopefully help me make a better judgement then juggling an opinion in my head alone.
I used to just ignore it all, I saw 3.40 and hoped it would go higher but Im certain I would have sold if I had paid more attention

If you look back at the SL 5yr chart, you can see a double header formation where the price hits a fairly level line twice in a row. This forms a M sign, this is a strong sign for anyone to sell if it fell below 3.30. ie. Its fallen in price, will it fall further? - this signal indicates yes
Add in other considerations, news, etc and thats when hopefully I would sell if it happened again

There was an opportunity to buy at 161p and sell above 180 this week but I didnt manage that personally.
Last week I could have gone from 165 to 180 but I hesitated and generally I have little confidence and tend to buy/hold long term not trade/gamble.
Right now SL is moving with the market, if you know the ftse is going to rise then sl will too I think

The trading range on SL seems to be slipping, obviously we're in a bear market and their sales have fallen as they are mostly in the uk market.
Apart from that, just buy low and sell high would probably work without reading any of the links I post tbh, always take everything with a pinch of salt




Double top :
http://www.trending123.com/patterns/double_top.html

Inverse Double Top (bottom) buy signal on Barclays:


http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=17997165&postcount=46


Looking for the same on SL, would be nice Let me know if you see it

tonygee_3

In the unlikely event of some good news I expect the the downward trend to continue with financials taking the brunt
Yorkshireman,I would be very careful of putting more money into the same stock,if u like the sector spread youre money around AV PRU etc
This sector has been great for trading but it wont last and new lows seem inevitable
I would be interested if a panic led to SL @ sub 145 at which point +30% could follow