Member Info for Bonz1957

First half profits eased back to £6.5 mill from £7 mill in the first half of the year, which was better than City predictions. Wealth management arm W de Broe is on target for £10 billion of funds management by the end of next year. The interim dividend is held at 1p.

NEX has posted a 26% rise in pre-tax profits to £95.5 million. It claims the figures for the six months to 30/6 are down to passengers seeking 'more cost effective' modes of travel.

Very strange goings on!! I've had posts removed for merely mentioning the name of the person who has been banned. In fact i've had one post removed which just commented on the subject with no names mentioned!! Sad days indeed if you are not allowed any banter on here. If it's going to become a site where you can only post share facts i may as well take out a sub to the FT :(o ATVB. (Whoever you are!!)

BAE Systems reported lower earnings growth in the first half of 2011 hurt by charges and foreign currency headwinds, but shares of the defence group jumped nearly 5% after the firm boosted its interim dividend and announced a £500m share repurchase program. Good news for us as the share buy-back can only have a positive effect on the sp in the long term. ATB.

What happened??

Who knows where this will go in the short or long term, certainly not me. It's a very niche retailer, more so than HMV, so is at the mercy of every retailing update and is likely to get knocked whenever the FTSE takes a step backwards. I was only enquiring what type of ISA you had - assumed it was to hold shares - and not what was in it, which is why i didn't think it referred to me. One of the wife's ISA's from many moons ago is in M&G Recovery, and has done very well over the years. Most of ours are now in China, Technology and Emerging Markets, along with some Opportunities funds and a recent move into Russia. I guess when you look at it i have a very different strategy for shares and UT's. Virtually all of my shares are in safe Blue Chip FTSE Co's with a good div yield, whereas i'm prepared to be more adventurous with my UT holdings, a strategy which has been very good for me over the last few years. To avoid the high charges i either go direct with the investment companies, or use Hargreaves Lansdown who rebate the up-front charges so you get more units and who i cannot recommend highly enough. And, they rebate some - if not most - of their annual charges by way of a Loyalty Bonus. LLOY was down just under 1% yesterday at 47.13 so managed to hold onto most of its gains from the low point at the beginning of the week. If the forthcoming results are viewed favourably we may see a rise until Greece rears its ugly humous encrusted face again, have a nasty feeling that situation is just not going away any time soon!! Sorry to disappoint you but it wasn't me who was recommending your posts - as lovely as they are :) lol!! Assumed it was Netters before he disappeard, or that very good M8 of yours Cherry!! Guess you would be easy to vote for as you regularly post on only a couple of boards, whereas i'm a bit of a tart and flit wherever the fancy takes me. But see you have your followers as you are back on the board again along with jings, UTCIAD, pashers and thistle - bit of an HMV clique all voting for each other!!! Not spent a lot of time on here recently as have had other things to do, but always have a look at what you have been up to when i do check in so i can be ready to jump to your defence if anyone trys to have a go. Enjoy your London trip, after over 30 years here i can't wait to get away. If all goes to plan - which it rarely does in my universe - I shall be in Devon for Xmas and never have to set foot in a big city again, unless of course it's a brief incursion to watch my team play. ATVB.

Your break sounds more like a chocoholics tour of the Highlands and Islands, rather than the alcoholic tour i would prefer lol!! Whereas i could do with your advice re travelling around your part of the world, there's no point asking me to be your guide around London. Have lived there for 30 years but have never done the touristy things. Have probably diven 10's of thousands of miles around the capital but wouldn't know if i was passing a museum or anywhere of interest. Hope to be away from London for good within the next twelve months so will probably do all the trips and open top bus tours before i leave. Not considering online trading, just looking at a way of cheaply putting all my investments onto Crest to make future sales easier. Roughly 80% of my holdings are dealt with by 2 Registrars - Capita and Equiniti - so maybe i'll just look at setting up a portfolio service with them. After my recent problems with paper certs going missing, and them then losing proof of ID mid way through trying to sell part of my holding, i just think it would be easier if they were all held in one or two places. With over 60 individual share holdings, a further 35+ unit trust and assorted investment plans, plus all of the varies bank and savings accounts (a mixture of instant access through to 5 year term accounts) as well as various ISA accounts, it would be an absolute nightmare for my family to sort out if ever anything should happen to me. Keeping on top of everything is beginning to take up too much of my time, while i leave my shares as they are i do try to monitor my unit trusts on a six monthly basis and move those that are under-performing, usually with the same provider so switches are free. If i wasn't so tight maybe i could pay a professional adviser to look after things for me, but i just don't trust them. Maybe their investment decisions would be better than mine, but i would always be afraid that they would be churning my investments to generate commissions for themselves!! Afraid it wasn't me asking about your ISA investments, but it is something i am looking into with a view to setting them up for my two. If i can get them both into the saving habit at an early age then hopefully they will have a nice little nest egg for their future. Have already warned them that we intend to spend the inheritence before they can get their hands on it. We've worked too hard for it over the years to sit down and give it all away. That is one area - Inheritance tax planning - where i will consider taking financial advice. I don't mind leaving some to the kids but i'm damned if i'll leave anything to HMRC. Having spent a lifetime being mean and not spending the kids are finding it very hard to come to terms with the new generous me!! Daughter was quite literally lost for words when i said we would pay for her holiday this year, and both were pleased to be given shares which they then sold to guarantee they will leave Uni debt-free. ATB.

Popped into my local N. Devon store today and treated myself to a bag of my favourites along with a bag of Continentals, 2 for £5, along with a couple of small bars, 2 for £1.20, which were effectively free as i used one of my last £1 shareholder vouchers. There is a lot of talk in the local papers about this branch being one of the ones facing the axe, but no-one can confirm or deny the rumours. You're absolutely right about my past employment record. I'm never happier than when behind the wheel - well almost never :) !! - so a busman's holiday would be right up my street, and maybe a Motorhome will be on my shopping list one day. And how did you know how much i was worth :) !! You seem to have me pretty well sussed, are you sure we've never met lol!! ATB. PS (clue) see the sp has taken a turn for the better, maybe we won't be seeing 27P anytime soon.

Think you mis-read my previous post, It was Capita that lost the share cert that i had driven across London to personally hand in to them!!! They send certs to be split up to their Huddersfield office but managed to lose mine in their internal post, so it took a weeks worth of ever more annoyed phone calls to get them to accept emailed transfer forms and send the replacements back to me!! Just looking at getting everything onto Crest so i can sell more easily. My Portfolio is my pension pot so would definitely not be tempted to try selling and buying back to get an extra 20 shares or make 1p on the sp - i know my limits. Best of luck tracking down that missing cert. Wonder where i put my Polly Peck??? ATB.

Think this may be what you were looking for. It's buried under Investors, Shareholder Services, Ordinary Shareholders, Capital Gains Tax, BP. http://www.bp.com/extendedgenericarticle.do?categoryId=9033033&contentId=7061232 Am starting to get a little fed up with paper certs, it's such a long drawn out process to get anything done. Brought to a head recently by Capita losing a share cert worth over £100k that was personally handed in to their office to the person dealing with the corporate action!!!! ARGH, it took over a week to resolve!! So have decided to drag myself kicking and screaming into the 21st century and look to go electronic. So any advice on who offers a good low cost service would be greatly appreciated. ATB.

What a weird day on the markets, THT is my only patch of blue in a sea of red!! Your hol sounds absolutely fabulous, just the sort of staycation i would enjoy. I'm definately using you as my holiday planner, would love to visit some of the places you've been to over the last week - though think i'ld have to get the wifey to do the driving!! Have been away from the pc a lot myself - no fun when you're not around xx - and am currently enjoying a week down in Devon so missed Netley's worst. Yep, that deramper bloke you referred to has a lot to learn!! I noticed the 27p recommendation but decided THT has enough problems at the moment without me adding to them. Some of the brokers tips are usually good for a laugh. Have noticed ES are usually a long way away from reality, or raise their guide price a day or two after the sp has risen!! Moi, rambling? Never. ATVB.

See the post NOTW bubble didn't last for long. IMHO would not try to read too much hope into the sp on the back of NOTW's demise. The newspaper industry is still in decline and TNI still has a mountain to climb. Hope those rating this a strong buy at 50p and those forecasting 60p and higher didn't follow their own advice and get too badly burnt!! ATB.

Nice idea, but a lot of us don't have the option of switching to Virgin. They only seem interested in the inner cities and don't come within 50 miles of where i live!!

It is being reported that the names 'The Sun on Sunday' and 'The Sun on Sunday.com' have been registered in the last couple of days. So it would appear that News International are planning to fill the gap left by NOTW very quickly!! ATB.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14070733

Just been announced on Sky News that this Sunday will see the last ever edition of NOTW being printed. Obviously knew they faced problems over recent allegations, but i never saw this coming. Wonder if this will have a positive effect on the Sunday Mirror's circulation figures?? God knows it needs all the help it can get. ATB.

My last post on here did say "Most of my shares have been sheltered in PEPS and ISA's" the ones that are left in paper form are quite small holdings and economically not worth moving into an ISA now. You're preaching to the converted with regards to HL, have used them for years and very satisfied. SIPP's are definately not for me, am retired with no income so the i would argue that the tax advantages are not relevant to me. But sound advice, and i would advise everyone to maximise their savings via ISA's and SIPP's, my two - aged 18 and 20 - have already started, although it's a constant battle to stop my daughter spending all of hers shopping!!! ATB.

Free bag of Thorntons Truffles worth £2.99 with this Sat's Telegraph. And while you are there please buy something extra, they need all the help they can get. ATB.

It most certainly is the water used by the groccles, that's why the government recently announced that they would be helping the South west with their bills in recognition of the fact. We have always had the cleanest beaches in the country, and currently the South West has 37% of all the Blue Flag beaches in England, with Devon alone accounting for 19%. That's 1 in 5 of the cleanest beaches are in God's Own County. ATB.

But remember CNA have competitors and NG are a monopoly. So expect some civil servant paper-clip counter to decide that it needs to be broken up soon to get more competition into the marketplace lol!!! ATB.