Abbey and Efficient markets

Abbey National "An 'efficient' market is defined as a market where there are large numbers of rational, profit-maxi misers actively competing, with each trying to predict future market values of individual stocks, and where important current information is almost freely available to all participants. In an efficient market, competition among the many intelligent participants leads to a situation where, at any point in time, actual prices of individual stocks already reflect the effects of information …

…shows the most valuable 100 countries in the U.K with a minimum market capitalisation of £3bn. The FTSE is a weighted average figure of the top 100 companies; the FTSE was set at 1000 points at the end of 1983 and has appreciated to over 4000 points in 2004. 30th April Abbey share prices rose amid the speculation of an informal takeover by Spanish Santander Central Hispano bank. The shares rose 5 percent while the FTSE remained stable.