At Stockopedia this week sentiment among contributors and discussion groups reflected the uncertainty seen across the markets throughout August. On one hand, turbulent conditions and dramatic collapses in value have battered portfolios and caused a great deal of concern. On the other, investors are being presented with huge potential opportunities to mop up cheap stocks and quality companies that have been hit hard by market volatility.
On London exchanges the mood among traders was subdued ahead of the extended holiday weekend. The FTSE 100 index opened the week at 5040.76 points and went on to peak during Wednesday at 5250.59 before slumping back towards 5100 on Friday. The FTSE AIM 100 endured a similar pattern; opening the week at 740.98 and gaining ground before slipping back to around 743 by Friday. The performance reflected uncertainty among investors over whether US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke would take steps to support the country’s economy with a further round of quantitative easing.
In Investing, Stockopedia contributor ExpectingValue took some inspiration from recent stockmarket falls to identify some fallen stars in the investing landscape and find bargains in the market wreckage. Elsewhere, Christopher O’Leary discussed the state of global equity markets and why he believes that sharp falls last month were due to more excessive fear and herd behaviour than any shift in economic and corporate fundamentals. Niels Jensen put the case for why the recent downgrade by Standard & Poor’s of US sovereign debt to AA+ really matters to investors – and what the repercussions elsewhere could be. And on the same theme, Marben considered the future of the Euro and the possible consequences that sovereign debt crises across Europe will ultimately have on the single currency.
We spoke to Jeremy Martin, the chief executive of nickel and gold exploration company Horizonte Minerals about the progress the company is making on its projects in Brazil. Twelve months after agreeing a transformational deal with industry giant Teck Resources over the Araguaia nickel project, Horizonte is driving ahead with plans to deliver a 100 million resource within months. Together with new drilling on an exciting gold project also in Brazil, Horizonte has also spent the last year completing a significant fundraising, licence expansion and a TSX listing. Elsewhere, we also talked…
