http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle6524450.ece
Buyers rush for gilts as index slides below 4,300
London’s leading stock market index plunged through the 4,300 level for the first time in five weeks, a move that many investment houses believe removes a crucial support for equities.
Gilt prices soared as investors appeared to be running for safe-haven securities. The FTSE 100 closed down 50.11 points at 4,278.46, hit by another bout of selling of mining stocks.
“I would rubbish suggestions of profit-taking,” Omer Bhatti, the head of sales trading at WorldSpreads, said.
Mr Bhatti and many other traders believe that market moves in the past five weeks have been driven not by trading in individual equities but by investors betting in the futures market on movements in the index itself — buying when it approaches 4,300 and selling when it nears 4,500. Now that the index has fallen below 4,300, he thinks that these traders will close their long positions and even short the index further.
He said: “No one is catching this fall as it has been so openly and widely demanded.” But he thinks that many fund managers who believe the worst is past will start buying at 4,100.
The gloom is in marked contrast to the mood only a week ago, when “chartists”, who try to predict future trends using historic charts, were talking about an imminent “golden cross”, when the short term (50-day) moving average level of the S&P 500 rises above that index’s long-term (200-day) average level.
Buyers rush for gilts as index slides below 4,300
London’s leading stock market index plunged through the 4,300 level for the first time in five weeks, a move that many investment houses believe removes a crucial support for equities.
Gilt prices soared as investors appeared to be running for safe-haven securities. The FTSE 100 closed down 50.11 points at 4,278.46, hit by another bout of selling of mining stocks.
“I would rubbish suggestions of profit-taking,” Omer Bhatti, the head of sales trading at WorldSpreads, said.
Mr Bhatti and many other traders believe that market moves in the past five weeks have been driven not by trading in individual equities but by investors betting in the futures market on movements in the index itself — buying when it approaches 4,300 and selling when it nears 4,500. Now that the index has fallen below 4,300, he thinks that these traders will close their long positions and even short the index further.
He said: “No one is catching this fall as it has been so openly and widely demanded.” But he thinks that many fund managers who believe the worst is past will start buying at 4,100.
The gloom is in marked contrast to the mood only a week ago, when “chartists”, who try to predict future trends using historic charts, were talking about an imminent “golden cross”, when the short term (50-day) moving average level of the S&P 500 rises above that index’s long-term (200-day) average level.
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