Little doing as the stock market takes off for a day in the sun

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Little doing as the stock market takes off for a day in the sun

There was little or no news around as the FTSE closed its doors for their annual spring holiday. There was much anticipation that tomorrow will see a continuation of the steady recovery that has now gone on for the last few weeks, especially on the announcement that the US treasury look set to purchase around one trillion dollars of healthy ( at least for the time being) assets from the banks. Experts have it that this will create the final major push that will eventually extricate the American as well as the global economy from the severest recession seen in more than sixty years.

It was just like the French to spoil a holiday, and this they almost did with the announcement that their state-controlled utility body EDF is considering disposing of its electricity distribution business in the UK, in a move to reduce its heavy debt burdens. Seemingly the matter was raised at the company's recent board meeting, when the proposition of disposing of the network, which is the largest in the UK, was mooted. The apparent reason is that EDF are finding themselves temporarily strapped for cash, after a series of acquisitions, the most recent being the €15bn purchase of British Energy.

Overall EDF are reported to be planning to offload assets worth around €5bn in disposals, to reduce their debts that currently amount to almost €25bn.

The recently bankrupt Chrysler group has hastened to announce that their UK operation was in a healthy position despite their US parent group having called for Chapter 11 protection on Friday.

The UK offshoot, based in Milton Keynes and with a work force of around seventy, announced that they were in close contact with the company's dealerships around the UK as well as any customers who have been in contact concerned about outstanding warranties and the availability of spare parts. In 2008, Chrysler UK sold over 13,000 vehicles.

Sterling rose slightly against the dollar yet slipped back against the Euro, whilst holding its own against the Japanese Yen and the Swiss Franc:

Pound/US dollar 1.504
Pound/Euro 1.1204
Pound/Japanese Yen 148.43
Pound/Swiss Franc 1.6919

On Wall Street shares enjoyed another relatively buoyant day with

the Dow Jones Average rising another 214.33 points to close at 8426.74. The Nasdaq also rose by 44.36 points to finish the day at 1763.56.

Stateside yesterday, President Obama announced a proposal that will effectively outlaw certain loopholes designed to allow offshore tax-avoidance. The move is expected to affect US corporations with overseas divisions. Obama's proposal is intended to disallow certain tax deductions for firms whose profits are earned in countries with lower tax bands than that of the US.

The US Treasury will be employing almost one thousand additional federal agents to enforce the new legislation, which is likely to bring an additional £140billion laws, ($210bn) in tax revenue over the next ten years

In overnight trading in Asia, encouraging signs continued. Shares in the Taipei exchange closed at the highest levels since September 2008, buoyed by investor confidence of closer ties with Beijing

Yesterday advance left the benchmark up 38 per cent since the beginning of 2009.