House prices in England and Wales fell in April to stand slightly lower on a year ago, a survey showed on Monday, in a further sign that the housing market is cooling fast.Housing researchers Hometrack said house prices were 0.9 percent down on the year in April, having posted a 0.4 percent annual gain in March and the weakest figure since January 2006.

That also compares with an annual rise of nearly 7 percent last April. Hometrack said house prices fell 0.6 percent during the month, the seventh straight month of declines.

“While the availability of finance is impacting on demand in certain segments, the reality is that weak confidence is effectively resulting in a ‘buyers strike’ with households sitting on the sidelines and waiting to see how events unfold,” said Richard Donnell, Hometrack Director of Research.

The board of HBOS (HBOS) meets on Monday amid growing speculation the mortgage bank is set to announce plans for a rights issue of shares of up to 4 billion pounds to shore up its capital base.Newspaper reports over the weekend, just days after Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) announced plans for a record 12 billion pound fundraising, said HBOS’s board would consider raising between 2 billion and 4 billion pounds, though it could also decide to ride out the credit crunch without fresh funds.

The Financial Times said on Monday that Britain’s largest mortgage lender — due to report on current trading on Tuesday, before its annual shareholder meeting — was now finalising its plans to tap investors for fresh capital.

HBOS shares rose 1 percent to 502 pence in early trading to value the lender at 19 billion pounds.

Analysts have long said HBOS, which has one of the more stretched capital ratios among UK banks, could have to raise cash to bolster its balance sheet.

They have also estimated the bank could take further writedowns of up to 3 billion pounds, hit by the deteriorating value of toxic assets including below-prime Alt-A mortgages.

At its full-year results, HBOS announced writedowns of just 227 million pounds.

HBOS brokers Morgan Stanley and Dresdner Kleinwort are expected to at least partly underwrite any rights issue.

Last week, HBOS said a 9 billion pound residential mortgage-backed security deal would provide it with a more diverse and flexible funding base.

IGMinvestmore.com attended and exhibited at the t1ps.com Mater Investor 2008 show at London’s Business Design Centre.  The event was a huge success with well over the anticipated 2,000 private investors rolling through the doors.  Whilst busy exhibiting ourselves, we took the time to wander around and see who else was on display.  It was clear that there were three types of exhibitor:

• those targeting products and services at the attending private investors
• AIM PLC’s canvassing for support from the investors
• Ancillary support services pitching for business from the exhibitors themselves

Cleary IGMinvestmore.com falls into the first category, but the category that should be of most interest to you is the second.  Having looked at all of the AIM companies on display I have identified a few that I think are worthy of note and should be watched closely:

1. Forbidden Technologies PLCDespite sounding like a Californian specialist movie maker, Forbidden Technologies is in fact a distributed video editing and delivery service.  Identifying the convergence between increasing internet bandwidth and decreasing access costs the company specialise in all things web video.  Established over 8 years ago the company has developed a product for the professional market allowing content creators, video editors, script writers and sound engineers from all over the world to collaborate and publish professional web video.  The software is fully hosted and supported meaning there are no ongoing maintenance costs, upgrades or hardware changes. Any computer with a decent internet connection and a web browser can use the software.

   With a share price of only 8.75p at the time of writing (52 week high of 14p) Forbidden Technologies could be a real hot buy if the current trend towards video in social media continues.

2. Anglesey Mining PLCA traditional mining company that is just about to receive a large cash injection due to the sale of its primary mining site.  The company has invested in a new iron ore location in Canada that looks set to generate more than $60,000,000 turnover in its first year alone.  With a buoyant minerals market and talk of a potential interested purchaser Anglesey Mining PLC could certainly become a hot stock.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has put forward a resolution to dispose of just over 400 tonnes of their 3,200 tonne stockpile.

Why?

Several reasons.  Firstly, gold is at an all-time high in terms of value and so cashing in now (instead of 10 years ago at $270/oz like the then UK Chancellor, now Prime Minister did) is as good a time as any.  Also, the IMF has been assisting in financial crisis far less in recent years.  These IMF interventions were the organisations major source of revenue, and it now has a projected income shortfall that needs to be filled. In steps the gold reserves.

The selling of the IMF’s gold is not a singular action, rather it marks the beginning of a complete overhaul of the organisation’s finances with funds being moved out of gold and into bonds and perhaps even equities.  The organisation must adapt to he the world’s new financial system or risk being left behind, and perhaps bankrupt.  US Congressional approval is required before the IMF can sell its gold, although it is widely thought that this will be given.

Is this is a signal of the end of the gold rush, or just a cash strapped organisation struggling to justify its existence and guarantee its survival?

The European Union has announced plans to harmonise the roll-out of mobile phone use in flight.  The EU will coordinate with major airlines, aerospace manufacturers and mobile phone networks to ensure that a common framework allowing the use of mobile phones in flight is created.

So within a year or so you’ll be able to keep up-to-date with all of your latest investments via www.igminvestmore.com whilst in the air!

I have been waiting for airlines to allow the use of mobile phones on aircraft for years.  There is no proven interference between mobile phones and any of the navigation systems onboard a modern airliner.  As both a pilot and technologist I have expected this announcement for some time.  However, as a passenger I am not so sure that it will be a good thing.  Will aircraft just be full of loud passengers ringing their friends and family to say, “Hi, yah, I’m on the plane”. Oh dear.