Poor signal from BSkyB

YESTERDAY, BskyB announced that former chief executive Tony Ball received £13.2m in his final year at the company. It‘s hard for many shareholders to compare this sum against the ever-dwindling value of their shares. And looking at the chart brings little consolation, as technically this stock looks set for more losses.

BskyB spent the first half of this year steadily trending down from 786p to an August pause at around 600p - a huge drop of 24%. This was bad enough, especially when set against a strengthening Footsie. But more bad news sent shares on a near vertical fall straight to 465p.

Severely winded, the last couple of months have seen values swing between 470p and 520p, at times offering hope of further recovery, but never delivering.

Now, looking at the chart for the last few weeks, it is clear to see that some recent strength was capped by resistance at 512p last week.

That means the next swing will be downwards. And with news flow and sentiment erring on the negative side, it is likely that shares will start to slide soon. But by how far?

The technical target over the next few weeks is 467p and a break below that support area could pave the way for this year‘s low at 460p.

On a more hopeful note, if shares can break back above 515p, then BskyB should find support to move higher.