09 September 2014

Getting over-excited

Shock!  Horror!  The Guardian reports:
Billions of pounds were wiped off the value of companies with Scottish links and the pound was pummelled as markets took fright at the increasing prospect of Scotland voting next week to break away from the United Kingdom.
Investors on Monday dumped companies with exposure to Scotland, including the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group, which owns Bank of Scotland.
They also ditched sterling, which at one point fell to its lowest level against the dollar for 10 months.
"Be afraid, be very afraid," Deutsche Bank analysts warned its clients after the Sunday Times YouGov poll had showed a small lead for the yes campaign.

Actually, the RBS share price fell by 1.3% to 342.5 pence.  This is far from welcome, but it is not uncommon.  As may be seen from the following graph, there have been many days over the past 12 months when the RBS share price was lower than 342.5 pence, sometimes much lower.


Indeed, only a month ago, the price was below 340 pence.

Much the same could be said of Lloyds, whose share price yesterday fell by 2.43% to 72,2 pence.


The point is that share prices go up and down all the time.  And it is foolish to read too much into the movement on any single day, especially when that movement is within the normal bounds of variation.

Furthermore, there were plenty of non-Scottish FTSE-100 companies whose share prices yesterday fell by greater percentages than the two illustrated above.

So don't panic,  Yet.


Update

As at 08.27 (BST), the RBS share price has risen to 345 pence, while that of Lloyds has risen to 73.5 pence.




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