Financials / Editor / 17 October 2008 / Leave a comment

PSSST! Wanna know how many shares opened up on the FTSE this morning?

Impressive stuff.

On the face of it it looks like Gordon Brown's plan is doing just fine. Has he paid over the odds for our shares in banking stocks. Well, had he waited a week longer, he would have paid less.

Investors in banking stocks are taking fright, upset that Brown has ordered banks to stop paying dividends to ordinary shareholders.

RBS, Lloyds TSB and HBOS - our banks; your banks - are now trading down on the price Brown committed to buy the shares.

So if you are an existing sharehold, would you take up right to buy more shares? Is demand for banking stock there?

Demand and the price rises. Is the price going to rise?