Forum Archive Index - January 2001

["Peter Maiden" <pmaiden@xtra.co.nz>]

Re - QBE and other insurance stocks

 

I see on CNN this morning that insurance stocks took a pounding on Wall St. The sector index down some 20%. Overall fall from mid-Dec at about 18%.

 

I love the way that CNN and others can make big events look so dramatic.

 

Read this in the the Sydney Morning Herald this morning about the "Wall St hype machine" - extracts from a recent book on such events   http://www.smh.com.au/news/0101/13/business/business1.html 

 

Back to QBE - looking at the ASX Insurance Index chart it took a bit of a hit last week and started heading south steeply.

 

Looks like I was wrong last week when I said the insurance stocks in Australia  'still appear to have a bit of upside' 

 

Gerry - maybe QBE at 1000 is just a little further away than we first thought - even though it appears to be one of the better performing Aust insurance companies.

 

Interesting how the stocks in a sector work in unison. Bad news or negative sentiment hurts one and all suffer.

 

Insurance stocks usually don't interest me but the latest developments caught my attention - seeing Gerry has got me interested better pass it on.

 

Maybe TAB is a better bet in the short term?

 

Peter