Week 03 of 2013
Another reasonable week for equities. Earnings season continues to deliver some surprises mainly on the upside. 2013 continues to see the major indices perform well despite the looming US debt ceiling issue. Noises from congress suggest that those involved may well look to kick the can down the road until April – extending the can kicking (from End of Dec) a further 8 weeks. It can’t be put off forever, but any move to push a decision out to April will surely be greeted well by the markets based on current sentiment.
The Dow closed week 3 at 13650 and a 172pt gain for the week. That’s still some way off its 2012 highs. The FTSE 100 closed at 6154, a weekly gain of 32pts. Identical to week 2′s performance.
A virtual portfolio has been set up using the 2012 final trading day close figures as a starting point and £1000 has been invested in each stock. This does not include buying fees or stamp duty and is purely intended to be used as a benchmark or summary for each week. One newspaper top ten picks for 2013 has been included to help monitor/compare against. A pi ‘polled’ top picks list (from LSE bulletin boards) has been included this year.
Week 03 stock picks summary:
TheShareHub’s Hotlist extends its lead but gains were harder to come by as the market begins to survey and absorb the strong start to the year.
The Independent moves up to second spot by virtue of some profit taking on theSharehub’s b-list picks and also on the LSE picks.
News flow could be thick and fast next week as many of the Hotlist stock picks are geared up for news releases. Some guaranteed and others not. Afren are due to provide a management update on Monday – so investors will be keen to see how ops have been doing – especially the elusive news on Kurdistan.
A late surge in Serica’s sp on friday may give a hint that they are close to releasing news on Namibian 3D seismics. Watch out for MXP too as news is due on their current shallow drill. Finally – GKP investors may get some long overdue news from MOL – GKP’s partner on the AB licence. Watch out for Antrim (AEY) too as production now appears to be up and running again after the TAQA oil leak scare in the north sea.
Tethys (TPL) performance since week 1 has been impressive. A recent corp presentation (posted on thesharehub) has caught the eye of a few investors and volume appears to be picking up ahead of the hopeful government approval on the Chinese/French farm out deal.
It’s still very early days for the stock picks and it just takes the odd stock here and there to strike good or bad news – and the whole performance can change in a whisker.
The best performing individual stock in 2013 thus far goes to Westminster Group (LSE BB Polled stock picks) with a gain of 28.32%.
Roll on next week!
Current standings / Week 03 Results
1. TheShareHub’s 2013 Hotlist +7.28% (weekly gain of 0.75%)
2. The Independent 2013 +6.29% (weekly gain of 0.39%)
3. The LSE BB List 2013 +5.58% (weekly loss of 0.53%)
4. TheShareHub’s 2013 B-List +5.00% (weekly loss of 1.05%)
Click on Portfolio image to enlarge
