Is it just Cityblogger or is every Tom, Dick and HBOS queuing up to do a rights issue at the moment? Bradford & Bingley annoyed investors yesterday by launching its own £300m issue. “Only a month ago there was no sign of a rights issue,” points out David Buik at BGC Partners. “Yesterday £300 million was required.  It’s not a king’s ransom but for B&B it’s very significant.”

And now Barclays has come out and refused to rule one out. At its first quarter trading update today the bank said it would not “rule in or rule out any option” as its core equity tier 1 ratio is now below its own target at 5.1 per cent. On the plus side, trading seems relatively healthy compared to its peers, although it took £1.7bn of asset write-downs in the first quarter relating to the credit crunch.

The morning the FTSE100 took a slight bashing as the Royal Bank of Scotland’s rights issue closed out, and banking stocks were hit by concerns over who could be next with a rights issue. Traders hope one from Alliance & Leicester won’t be on the cards given its strong deposit base. But rumours are circulating that Lloyds TSB could be in the frame, although Mr Buik believes this is unlikely considering its more modest exposure to bad debt.

Buying into banks could be tempting but City experts say steer clear. “Picking a low in the financials sector is a [foolish thing] to try and do right now,” Tom Hougaard, chief market strategist at City Index, told Cityblogger. “Earlier this week Barclays was at 480p and now it’s 413p. I think the financials are in a bear market and as long as they are in a bear market [the FTSE won’t recover].”

Certainly, Our Merv’s Bank of England Quarterly Inflation Report yesterday didn’t help, refusing to rule out a recession as inflation rampages. Thanks for the good cheer, Merv!

Meanwhile Mr Hougaard says he’s finding it difficult to read the FTSE100. “Who knows where the economy is going?” he says. “The politicians don’t know. The FTSE is just stalling and I can’t make up my mind if it’s going to go down or up. We’re in for a breather and it could be a bit longer than we think.”

However, if the FTSE goes above 6250 he will take this as a sign to go long on it, and if below 6100, as a sign to go short.

Elsewhere, activist investor Carl Icahn has snapped up a stake in Yahoo. Interesting times!

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