Member Info for Bonz1957

You can now get a 755g box of Thorntons Continental Collection chocolates with £10 of Clubcard Vouchers. After renewing my RAC and various magazine subscriptions, I may just have enough left over to treat myself. If I'm really lucky I may have enough to get me a Chocoholics Hamper for £26 in Vouchers.

Without any good news this could easily fall to the mid 60's that we last saw back in June.

Lots of hope for the future , but still stuggling. INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT 17 weeks ended 31 October 2010 http://www.trinitymirror.com/document/2010IMSNovFinal.pdf

Labour leader Ed Miliband and his partner Justine have called their second child Samuel Miliband, it was announced today. He will also have the middle names Stewart, after Justine's father, and Thornton, which is her surname, according to a Labour Party spokesman. A likely story, Ed has been outed as a Thorntons choccy lover!! lol What effect will this have on the sp??

They're my favourite, but unfortunately my local is too far away to making collecting a free bag worthwhile, what with the parking and all. Will just have to wait a little longer and then stock up for Xmas with my vouchers.

Sorry!!! We shouldn't be too ungrateful, we've had a great run since the RI, I'll be happy if we can consolidate around the 600p level for a while. Easy at the moment with the FTSE on a high, the true test for this share will come when the markets retreat to base camp, hopefully just pausing for breath before continuing the climb back over 6000. GLA.

I'm assuming that your question refers to BNC and not divs/scrips/drips in general, and that you didn't hold BNC last year, or only took cash. If you hold your shares through a broker then I'm assuming they collect the divs and pass them on to you in the form of cash credited to your account, you would need to check with them to see if they are able to take the Nov div as new shares on your behalf. The details below refer to holding your shares through the 'Grupo Santander Nominee Scheme' or an approved Nominee scheme. For three of their annual divs, Feb May and Aug, they do things normally. They announce Xp per share which you take as cash, or if you hold your shares in a 'Santander Shareholder Account' - SSA - you can use the cash to buy more shares, just like a normal DRIP. Within the SSA there are no dealing charges and they also pay interest on any cash balance of 5%, but as there is only ever less than the cost of a new share at the end of each DRIP period to earn interest for 2-3 months until the next one, then it never amounts to much - maybe 20-30p. However for the Nov div they do things slightly differently. They offer a 'Santander Scrip Dividend Scheme' - SSDS -where you can opt to receive new shares, instead of cash, in proportion to your share holding - this Nov it is 1 new share for every 78 held on the record date. Any residual shares you hold which are not enough to buy an extra share are paid as cash. Within an SSA, this cash balance, when added to your existing balance from the previous DRIP may be enough to buy an extra share. One extra bonus is as this is classed as a distribution there is no need to declare this div on your Tax Return, as with a normal div. In May this year they announced the possibility, subject to market conditions and the popularity of the SSDS, to offer the SSDS for the Feb '11 div as well, with the May and Aug'11 divs being paid normally as a cash div. If you have read this far then you are probably more confused than you were before - Sorry!! In order to make the SSA work you really need to be in this for the long term, and not constantly buy and sell your shares. Have a look at http://www.santandershareholder.co.uk/ where they may be able to explain it better than me.

Looks like a good decision to sell half of BG, but not so clever to sell half of BP. They are flying today, up to 458p on news that they are unlikely to be found guilty of gross negligence.

Didn't expect it to go this low, so hoping this is the bottom. It's a pity that the Nov div is a scrip div, as if you elected to receive new shares they are issued in the ratio of 1 for 78. If it had been a normal div, and you had elected to receive new shares, the cash would have bought more shares at this lower price.

And an 11.525p div to come on Friday.

Briefly put its head above the parapet then ran away!!!

The government recently announced plans to invest £650million to combat cyber warfare threats and that's got to be mega bullish news for AIM-listed Endace. Its world-class technology enables companies and government agencies to guard against viruses, hackers and other network attacks. Already in demand on hopes that governments and corporates will move away from less scalable software towards Endace's dedicated hardware kits, its shares rocketed a further 61p to a year's high of 310p. Buyers dived in on hearing that the company had won a multi-million dollar order from a leading global financial services firm to deploy its EndaceProbes - cyber security monitoring product - at all levels in 15 data centres throughout the bank. Taken from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1326709/MARKET-REPORT.html

BOE has today said no Q/easing for us for the time being. And base rates held again - not good news for me 'cos I'm a saver!!

Hope you won!!! This may have further to go yet.

Nice bounce today on news that the Fed is to print another $600bn to ease banking worries over the water. Think yesterdays 755 was as low as it's likely to go for now - would have represented a good entry point for the brave - expect this to now rise above 800 very soon. All banks had been out of favour but are recovering well today, Lloyds and Barclays are up.

In order to qualify for the dividend you have to be on the register at the record date. This is usually 2-3 days after the share goes ex-dividend. As to when you can sell it all depends how quickly the purchase goes through and the new buyer appears on the register. Remember that when a share goes ex-div it usually opens slightly lower - by the amount of the div - on the next day of trading. If you want to collect the div it is best to sell after the record date, that way you may get a lower price but you will receive the div to compensate. Or, sell before the ex-div date to get the higher price but no div. However in the real world it is almost always better to buy or sell when the signals tell you it is the right time for that share, holding on for the div may not mean you end up with more cash from your investment.

Howden Joinery Group Plc ('the Group') is today publishing its Interim Management Statement covering the period from the end of the first half of the year (13th June 2010) to date. The Board is pleased to report that the business has continued to perform well and has delivered good performance on key measures, particularly during the crucial October trading period (period 11). In addition, further 'legacy' property agreements have reduced aggregate future costs by more than £20m. Trading conditions have remained stable since the end of the first half of the year. Sales between the end of the first half of the year and the end of October (periods 7 to 11) from Howden Joinery UK depots were 6.7% higher than the corresponding periods last year. In our important period 11, which ran from 4th to 30th October, sales of over £140m were more than 2 ¼ times the average seen in the preceding periods, which is a typical pattern. In the first 11 periods (44 weeks) of 2010, ending 30th October, Howden Joinery UK depots' revenue was up 4.9%, rising 3.6% on a same depot basis. This performance reflects the previously reported impact of the cold weather seen in the first two periods of the year (to 20th February). Since that date, total sales have increased by 6.4% year-on-year. We have continued to focus on gross profit margin throughout the business. Along with the benefit seen from the price rise implemented earlier in the year, this has meant that the gross profit margin has continued to improve since the end of the first half of the year.

Great share, shame about the yield. At current levels the yield is less than 1%, yet if they paid a more respectable 5% - as most other utilities do - we would see a healthy 60p per year. Will just have to make do with the +25% gain in the last three months!!

This has to be the worst VCT ever!! Launched at the wrong time, pre crash, and has struggled to make any money for its investors ever since. However a bit of good news from the final results for the year ended 31 July 2010 finally sees a rise in NAV. During the year the change in Net Asset Value ('NAV') plus cumulative dividends paid has generated a positive return of 12.2%. This was calculated from a NAV increase of 4.9p to 69.4p plus dividends paid of 3.0p. It is pleasing to report that following a negative total return in the previous financial year, several of the investee companies have seen an uplift in their values, which has lead to this positive return in 2010.

This has to be the worst VCT ever!! Launched at the wrong time, pre crash, and has struggled to make any money for its investors ever since. However a bit of good news from the final results for the year ended 31 July 2010 finally sees a rise in NAV. During the year the change in Net Asset Value ('NAV') plus cumulative dividends paid has generated a positive return of 12.2%. This was calculated from a NAV increase of 4.9p to 69.4p plus dividends paid of 3.0p. It is pleasing to report that following a negative total return in the previous financial year, several of the investee companies have seen an uplift in their values, which has lead to this positive return in 2010.