Tag Archives: market-abuse


Investors cheer shorting ban

Interactive Investor – Investors are cheering the temporary ban on shorting financial stocks which came into play on Friday morning. The Financial Services Authority introduced the four-month freeze on profiteering from falling share prices after the markets closed last night […]

Swing back to bank stocks is overdone, says Merrill Lynch

Times Online – The fashionable investment tactic of the past month – buying bank stocks while selling energy companies – could already have gone too far, Merrill Lynch, the financial management group, warned clients yesterday. In mid-July, hedge funds, pension […]

Investors are betting $1tn on collapse in global stock prices

Gulf Times- Managers from William Ackman to Jim Rogers made a total of at least $1.4bn in July with wagers against US mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Harbinger Capital Partners staked $665mn […]

Hedge funds’ 1bn HBOS killing

Independant- Hedge funds may have made more than £1bn from shorting shares in HBOS, whose £4bn rights issue faced intense pressure from investors betting on the share price falling. Almost 15 per cent, or about 550 million, of the bank’s […]

Hedges turn to business of rescue

Financial Times- Even as politicians and regulators accuse hedge fund short-sellers of trying to bring down banks in Britain, the US and Australia, top hedge managers are providing rescue capital to prop up the ailing corporate world. The latest bail-out […]

The last-minute surprise that is ‘maintaining consumer confidence’

Times Online- Proper consultation is the rock upon which good regulation is founded. And for the Financial Services Authority, consultation is in its DNA. So when it does the unthinkable and drops a bombshell without warning or discussion — as […]

Hedge funds bet on HBOS to fall

Business Spectator- Hedge funds sharply increased their bets against UK lender HBOS in the first days after the Financial Services Authority imposed new rules on June 13, targeting abusive short-selling and smooth the process for firms raising cash from rights […]

Hedge fund managers betting on plunge in bank shares

The Independent- The American hedge fund group Harbinger Capital Partners revealed that it has made a significant bet on HBOS’s price falling, while its UK counterpart GLG admitted it is targeting the rival mortgage bank Bradford & Bingley, as investors […]

‘Shorting’ hedge funds come out of the HBOS shadows

Scotsman- Mysterious global hedge funds which hope to profit from betting that the price of HBOS shares will continue to plummet emerged from the shadows yesterday. On the first day of new rules to bring greater transparency to "short selling", […]

Embattled UBS wraps up bumper rights issue

FRANKFURT (Reuters)- UBS has wrapped up a 16 billion franc rights issue, the Swiss bank’s second effort to resuscitate finances that have been ravaged by the global markets crisis. It is the latest in a line of major banks including […]

FSA puts pressure on top five banks to support Bradford & Bingley

Times Online- The Financial Services Authority took the unprecedented step of pressuring Britain’s five biggest banks into supporting the revised rescue capital-raising at Bradford & Bingley last week, The Times has learnt. HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Lloyds TSB […]