Please find below the Financial Fixed Odds report from David Evans, market analyst at BetOnMarkets.

It’s rally time and banks are leading the charge.

Barclays in the front runner, rising to over £2.80 and gaining nearly 10% today alone. Barclays is benefitting from the so called ‘independence’ premium and speculation over the potential gains to be made with the sale of its BGI unit. With today’s gains, Barclays has overtaken Britain’s only other remaining independent bank in terms of returns over the last year. Barclays has lost 38.71%, while HSBC has lost 44.28% over the last 365 days. Interestingly, HSBC is the only major UK bank which hasn’t rallied by 70% or more in the last month.

It’s not just the banks that are enjoying a good day, BSkyB posted excellent results that showed there was some truth in the belief that people will spend more on home entertainment in a recession. Sky’s profits were boosted by demand for its HD service.

Today’s rally comes despite record continuing jobless claims in the US. However, it is thought that the decline in the four week average of weekly claims is pointing to a peak. Investors know they aren’t out of the woods yet, but perhaps what we’re seeing at the moment is a belief that financial Armageddon has been averted.

Rallies off multi year lows rarely happen without corrections along the way. The FTSE has rallied by 20% since the March lows, so it could be time for a pull back. A No Touch trade predicting that the FTSE 100 won’t touch 4500 at any time during the next 40 days could return 109%

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