A lot of this writedowns have already been well flagged by the market, which is why NCP has fallen 21% in past 5 months.
However, NWS on NYSE up 8% in overnite trading. Investors starting to look beyond NCP investment in Gemstar-TV. News Corp has also raised guidance for 2002/2003 FY earnings.
NCP will move up well today, and those who having been shorting the stock and buying puts in the anticipation of NCP going to $10.00, will be falling over themselves to cover today. Instos will be big buyers of NCP over days.
Whether this rally will be short-lived will depend on News Corp ability to deliver on its TV, film and newpapers business.
Rupert also completely ruled out any futhur investment in Kirch-TV " saying" :
"We're not going into that company -- certainly not in the pay TV unit and probably not in anything else," Murdoch said. "We think it's a tired baby. We've written it off some months ago and we're getting on with life."