There was a distinct absence of festive cheer in the stock market as the benchmark FTSE 100 lacked support on Christmas Eve, spending the entire half-day trading session in the red.

It fell 50.8 points at one stage, before closing down 39.39 at 4216.59, while the FTSE 250 rose 27.72 to 6315.82. A handful of shares traded ex-dividend, including telecoms giant BT Group.

Not surprisingly, volumes were low. There were a number of companies which experienced large swings in their share prices due to poor liquidity. Clothing and camping equipment chain Blacks Leisure was one, with its shares surging 1¼, or 9pc, to 15¾p on volumes of just 15,809 shares.

Dealers kept a particul
FTSE 100 closes down as retail fears dampen Christmas spiritarly close eye on the retailers as concerns about their Christmas trading gathered pace. Investec published a sell rating and 110p target price on Kingfisher, and cut its pre-tax profit estimates for 2009/10 by 4pc to £330m, primarily reflecting lower anticipated profits at B&Q. Kingfisher fell 3.4 to 130.2p.

The broker was more upbeat about Home Retail Group, which owns the Argos catalogue business and gardening centre chain Homebase. It trimmed its target price by 15p to 230p but still rates the shares a buy. The shares dropped 4¼ to 205p.

Telegraph.co.uk

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And 2009 is tipped to get even worse! :(

I have not investment in stock so I am not worried, I have always think stock market is a bit of a gamble, event of recent times has demonstrated to me that its not a bit of gamble but a whole load of gamble, and sometime outright fraud like the Madoff guys con, how do we know Madoff is a one off? There is the Nick Lessons etc etc, I am not persuaded that stock market is safe investment.

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The problem though is that if the market goes down it affects more than just direct investors. It affects pension funds for example, so that hits those retiring.

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Yes I am aware of that, I fell sorry for those who have pensions linked to Fotsie

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The stockmarket went out with a whimper yesterday after a tumultuous year that saw the FTSE 100 index record its largest annual drop since its launch in 1984. Trading volume remained thin as just a handful of exchanges were open in a shortened session ahead of the new year break. A number of markets such as Germany, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Japan were closed.

The FTSE 100 closed at 12.30pm up 0.9% at 4434, with little corporate action to inspire traders.

Guardian.co.uk

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