Good morning!

We seem to be in the midst of a very strong rebound in the main indices, driven by a recovery in the resources sector, but with plenty of other things rising nicely too. Long may it last!

I've not heard this John Templeton quote before, but spotted it on Twitter this morning, and thought it worth repeating here;

"You never get a bargain except where most investors are trying to sell"

(I've not been able to verify this quote, so bear in mind it came from Twitter, hence may not be 100% accurate!)


Home Retail (LON:HOME)

Share price: 147.5p
No. shares: 813.4m
Market cap: £1,199.8m

Not a small cap, but interesting nonetheless - I've bought some shares in Home Retail (LON:HOME) this week, after an absence of several years - it's a company I know quite well, and met management at their AGM a few years ago.

This share looks potentially cheap, given its tremendously strong balance sheet - not only with net cash, but also it owns the customer credit operation outright too, and has no gearing. Although there is a pension deficit.

What has really got me excited, is their plans to offer same day delivery for £3.95. Four delivery slots are available, and if you order by 6pm, you should get it by 10pm, the same day. I think this could be transformational - since Argos might morph into a hybrid between a retailer, and a distribution company for other businesses. This is one step ahead of Amazon, amazingly - demonstrating that, far from being a stale old economy business, Argos is actually leading the charge on modernising its operations. That could lead to a re-rating of the shares, maybe?

I have tested out the same day delivery service, and so far it has miserably failed! Both orders were not delivered, and no emails or other explanation given. They haven't taken any money though, so clearly they are having teething problems, on what is a very ambitious project. Although they wouldn't be attempting it, unless it was feasible, so I can live with teething trouble.


XP Power (LON:XPP)

Share price: 1575p (down 4.5% today)
No. shares: 19.0m
Market cap: £299.3m

Trading update - this company has been on my watch list for a while, as I liked the…

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