RE: RE: RE: QuestionCapharnaum is correct. it is very unlikely that Manulife is in any jeopardy whatsoever. Nonetheless, you do not have to invoke manupulation to understand why it is trading at current levels.
1) Just look to Manulife's sector. It is not the only one that is underwater for the year. Sunlife and Great West Lifeco are also both well below January 1st levels.
2) The market is terrified and risk averse right now. This causes it to bail on stocks with lower dividends in favor of those that pay to wait. Manulife is in a sector that traditionally can be counted on for a decent dividend and yet it cut it in half. This will not make it attractive to it's more traditional shareholders.
3) The fact that the market is so risk averse at the moment is causing it to be particularly twitchy about stocks with bad news. Manulife came out with a one-two punch that the markets have not forgotten and are unlikely to very soon.
4) The guaranteed annuities will continue to be a big overhang on this stock as long as we are seeing these levels of volatility. You said:
the Professionals at MFC would not structure the guarantee payouts so as to make losses for the Company.
(I would think)
Of course they intended to make profits with the guaranteed annuities. But they did not foresee a market collapse bigger than any since the Great Depression. As it stands they currently look pretty bad.
The interesting thing about all this is it doesn't say very much bad about Manulife. It says much more about the temperment of the market. I'm not at all surprised to see Manulife trading at these levels, in fact I've believed since the equity issue that these levels were likely. I was more surprised when it went above $20. However I think these levels must represent a low risk of downside.
Kerina