The trick in these markets, if you think they have stabilised with the FTSE 100 index at about 6,000, is to work out which companies’ shares have suffered disproportionately. Among these looks to be Interserve, the construction and support services group.
The shares, as the graph shows, were above 600p in October and hit a three-year low last week on the publication of a note from Liberum that cast doubt on earnings forecasts for 2016. The company has full-year figures out next week and is therefore in closed season and not able to defend itself.
The shares added 20p to 396½p yesterday. If you assume, then, that the 2015 figures are unlikely to contain too many shocks, that fall still looks overdone. The support