Stocks and Shares Tips

[Newmanseye]

Just finished reading the thread, I cant see one post from Tighhty advocating this, and then again i see no posts warning,  as such I will refrain.

[Royal Flush]

[StuartHopkin]

You do all know Blatch piled the football trading money into these shares on Sunday morning??!?

[rex008]

It hit 38 at a low point yesterday. Now at 51.75. Could have made 36% in one day (ignoring the spread, obv).

Alternatively, put all your money on a corner. 32/33/35/36 is my personal favourite. Getting about the same odds, I reckon, and it would only take about 30s to know if you've lost it all, as opposed to another 6 months.

[treefella]

Up jumped a boil of bubblin crude....liquid gold...... so not.... ul lads. Does this latest setback now mean the dreams over ?

[outragous76]

To the tune of the Beverley Hillbillies

Ill tell you a story about a man named  James
A poor poker player who kept his family fed
And then one day he was reading the FT
And lumped on Desire cause they wanted to dig

At first the stock rose as desire fed the press
and he told he mates to lump on this mess
and then one day when they star-ted to drill
all they hit was dust and a dribbling well

So now theres no oil and the price is on the floor
The drilling rig abandoned and washed up on the shore
Everyone is sel-ling to cut their loss and run
And Hopkins buying more "cause it seems like fun"

[StuartHopkin]

To the tune of the Beverley Hillbillies

Ill tell you a story about a man named  James
A poor poker player who kept his family fed
And then one day he was reading the FT
And lumped on Desire cause they wanted to dig

At first the stock rose as desire fed the press
and he told he mates to lump on this mess
and then one day when they star-ted to drill
all they hit was dust and a dribbling well

So now theres no oil and the price is on the floor
The drilling rig abandoned and washed up on the shore
Everyone is sel-ling to cut their loss and run
And Hopkins buying more "cause it seems like fun"

Ha ha Nh Guy

[Cottonbud]

To the tune of the Beverley Hillbillies

Ill tell you a story about a man named  James
A poor poker player who kept his family fed
And then one day he was reading the FT
And lumped on Desire cause they wanted to dig

At first the stock rose as desire fed the press
and he told he mates to lump on this mess
and then one day when they star-ted to drill
all they hit was dust and a dribbling well

So now theres no oil and the price is on the floor
The drilling rig abandoned and washed up on the shore
Everyone is sel-ling to cut their loss and run
And Hopkins buying more "cause it seems like fun"

Lol marv! Still 16 wells to drill yet including the biggest well.. so FU lol!

[TightEnd]

Ignore the cash pile to an extent, it needs that as protection in case any of the £2.5bn order book goes wrong.

That said, it looks like a cheap stock. 3/4 of the order book is in water, waste, nuclear (stable markets) etc not in construction industry (cyclical) per se

The valuation of the whole sector is struggling because of what has happened at Jarvis and due to impending contract award uncertainty (hung parliament) from the government sector

[Doobs]

downsides of costain.

It is big in construction and big in PFI contracts.  The former has had a rough time and there is going to be some serious scaling back in the latter after the election.  These big contracts also have the potential to have big nasties hence the need for a big cash float.

It has debts as big as its market value.

It has been woeful for a long time.  Just look at its share price history.

In line with jarvis it needed a rights issue not long ago.

P/E of 10 or so isn't that cheap for engineering/construction type companies, they can get way cheaper.

The pension deficit is obviously a problem, and may well be as big as its market cap in reality now.

FWIW It has closed the pension scheme to future accrual which is a step further than most other companies have gone.
So overall it may well be cheap, but may well deserve to be.

dunno

[Doobs]

Oh yeah and I bought some Desire today at 47p ish

see http://www.fool.co.uk/news/investing/investing-strategy/2010/03/29/oil-investing-the-first-falklands-flop.aspx

Zero return is obviously more likely than a roaring success obviously, but the risk/reward has probably tipped a bit more in my favour.  So now I have two cr appy little oil explorers, but the combined value of them is less than my shell holding alone.

[rex008]

Costain do a fair bit of nuclear work, which is unlikely to go away. They're building the new high activity evaporator at Sellafield, for instance, which is about a £400m project (IIRC). They're also involved in gas transmission infrastructure (or have been in the past), which is another energy area that is having money invested at the mo. Not saying you should buy them, just more info.

[StuartHopkin]

Should I be holding on these or getting rid for a comedy loss?

[paulhouk03]

Should I be holding on these or getting rid for a comedy loss?

i will buy them off you for a comedy amount if you like?

[cia260895]

Should I be holding on these or getting rid for a comedy loss?

i will buy them off you for a comedy amount if you like?

A pair of shoes?