Investors may be interested in a recent meeting at a cement factory between Leslie Kent, Seymour Pierce’s widely followed construction sector analyst, and the finance director of RMC, the cement maker. Apparently, RMC has spotted a fall-off in building activity in the US in the last few weeks. Shipments of ready-mix concrete are the first things to fall if the sector goes into a decline. Mr Kent has shaved his forecasts for RMC as a result of the meeting and is no longer advising his clients to buy the company’s shares

RMC. From Monday homeowners will be able to hedge against rising interest rates or falling property prices by making contrary bets – the first time such bets have been available in the United Kingdom.

MoneynetmortgagessearchFrom Monday homeowners will be able to hedge against rising interest rates or falling property prices by making contrary bets – the first time such bets have been available in the United Kingdom.
City Index, the London spread-betting firm, is introducing bets on future mortgage rates and the direction of house prices, based on the City Markets Mortgage Index (CMMI) and data published each quarter by HM Land Registry in their Residential Property Price Report. CMMI is the average variable rate quoted by five major lenders: Abbey National, Bristol and West, Halifax, Nationwide and Woolwich.”This provides an excellent hedging facility for anyone with a mortgage,” says Alex Thistlethwayte, City Index chief executive. “Our clients will now be able to use CMMI to hedge historically low mortgage rates and City Index house price futures to hedge historically high house prices. This is the first personal finance product that provides protection for what is most people’s largest asset.”It works like this.

City Index is quoting interest rates at 6.16 per cent to sell and 6.41 per cent to buy. If you have a £100,000 variable-rate mortgage and want to protect yourself against rate rises, you buy at 6.41. At the end of a month if rates have gone up you will collect a profit to offset the fact that you will be paying more for your mortgage. On house prices, if you sell the relevant index you will make a profit if local house prices fall, compensating you for the fall in value of your own house.. Despite the recovery in the stock market, six weeks after the terrorist attacks many financial advisers and estate agents are suffering the dreaded buyers’ strike, where investors and homeowners sit on their hands, neither buying nor selling.

This is giving a falsely optimistic impression of share prices and making it difficult to value homes, although there are reports of cuts in property prices by 20 per cent or more in some areas to prompt an offer. Moneynet Despite the recovery in the stock market, six weeks after the terrorist attacks many financial advisers and estate agents are suffering the dreaded buyers’ strike, where investors and homeowners sit on their hands, neither buying nor selling. This is giving a falsely optimistic impression of share prices and making it difficult to value homes, although there are reports of cuts in property prices by 20 per cent or more in some areas to prompt an offer.
Graham Harris, a past-president of the National Association of Estate Agents, says: “Business has dropped off considerably in nearly the whole of the south-east, as far west as Reading and as far north as Milton Keynes. The rest of the country is as normal, but there seems to be a ripple effect spreading from London.”And Clare Arber, of the Association of Unit Trusts and Investment Funds, says: “Our figures for September will not be out until Monday, but I am confident sales will be significantly down.”Nearly all those contacted by The Independent say clients are holding off while they try to make sense of what has happened. Mike Roberts, a 31-year-old self-employed telecoms equipment trader, says: “The terrorist events have put me off. I had bought a mixture of shares – Bentalls, Peacock, Manchester United – and luckily I got out before 11 September.

I’ll use my Isa allowance before next April, but I’ll probably feed the money in gradually.”Jim Slater, a leading private investor, is unequivocally cutting his stock market involvement. He says in the next issue of Intelligent Investor, Jonathan Davis’s newsletter: “Normally, when you go into a war, you can discount the victory straight away. In this one, you can’t discount the victory, because it’s going to be a long battle, maybe 10 years.”In these circumstances, cash looks pretty good and defensive stocks are attractive also. Because I think the market is so volatile and so impermanent at present, I have maybe 50 per cent in cash and 25 per cent in shares. My shareholdings are in defensive stocks, such as housebuilders, and preference shares.”His views are echoed by John Jenkins, a 54-year-old sales manager at the Monmouth, Gwent, office of the German engineer G Bruss. He said: “I’m nervous and apprehensive about the stock market. It’s good to see some sectors are making improvements, but I’m concerned with the high unemployment and the low growth forecast.