Finally, good news regarding shares

If you had purchased £1,000 of Northern Rock shares one year ago it would now be worth £4.95,

With HBOS, earlier this week your £1,000 of shares would have been worth £16.50,

£1,000 invested in XL Leisure would now be worth less than £5,

If you bought £1000 worth of Tennents Lager one year ago, drank it all, then took the empty cans to an aluminium re-cycling plant, you would get £214.

So based on the above, the best current investment advice is to ignore your portfolio, drink heavily and recycle.