Footsie falls see betters going short

SPREAD-betters have faired better than most during the last nine trading days. Only two of the sessions have produced Footsie gains, but many traders have taken advantage of 'going short' and profiting from the drops.

That's not to say individual stocks have been quiet. Following its crushing share price collapse, troubled Jarvis made a technical knee-jerk recovery on Friday.

Is this another Marconi in progress? Spread-betters think not, and for the majority bets are buying the shares.

Accountants are currently running their rule over the indebted company so it's hardly surprising that rumours are rife as to whether a potential suitor will open the bidding at higher levels. Any bid is likely to take weeks rather than days to be made public.

Continued speculation in the supermarket sector has provided plenty of action. This weekend saw Philip Green announce his 'final' offer for M&S, to be accepted or rejected within two days ...

Greene King, the pub operator, raised a glass for traders last week. Shares rose over 5% as news of a major acquisition of neighbourhood pubs was announced. Most traders locked in profits after the news.

Weekend press has been full of reports covering this year's 'dismal' stock-market performance. The first six-month period has produced returns beneath almost all professional predictions.

Unsurprisingly, therefore, investors are finding it pretty hard to get excited about second-half prospects. Opinions as to where the UK's large-cap index is headed next are divided. Whereas a month ago most were bullish, the balance has swung to almost 50-50. And for spread-betters, that's an unusually bearish ratio.

But whether the market moves either up or down is unimportant. For the moment, most spread-betters are happy to make short-term bets, following news-flow surrounding active stocks and the FTSE 100 index.