Sharewatch — Analysts lost for words as ‘yo-yo effect’ causes havoc

In the words of one, housebuilding stocks have performed like “yo-yos” over the past seven days. Last week another said the market had “gone haywire” and the previous seven days were dubbed as “all over the shop”.

Bellway and Persimmon were two stocks affected by this phenomenon. Bellway, which was 828p on Monday 4 February, dropped to 719p by the following Friday and recovered to 766p by Tuesday. Persimmon went from 790p to 708p and back to 745p over the same period.

Among the contractors, Balfour Beatty bought an American military accommodation business for £180m and Kier sold its stake in a Scottish PFI hospital for £13.8m.

Both contractors recorded only modest price rises, however, as investors tend to tar everyone with the same credit crunch brush.