Shares magazine
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Editor's View
Moment of truth for Japanese stocks
Thursday 27 Jul 2017The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is increasingly gloomy on the prospects for the UK and US (see page 7) but there is at least one major economy where it is becoming more positive – namely Japan. In its latest World Economic Outlook it projects 1.3% growth in 2017 up 0.1% from its previous...
Do the rewards compensate for the risks taken?
Thursday 20 Jul 2017Shareholders in miner Rio Tinto ( RIO ) have enjoyed a 12.3% total return so far this year. While more than twice the total return from the FTSE 100 index (5.6%), is such a reward adequate to compensate for the risks involved with investing in such a volatile sector? Investors should always think...
Ten years since the credit crunch market sell-off
Thursday 13 Jul 2017Much has been written of late about investor-related anniversaries. It’s been just over a year since the Brexit vote-induced stock market crash (24 June 2016) and 5 July 2017 marked 10 years since UK interest rates last went up. The one event that doesn’t seem to have got as much attention is the...
Mercia Technologies going cheap after sector sell-off
Thursday 06 Jul 2017I t can sometimes only take a single company to cause ripples across an entire sector. That’s evident in the IP (intellectual property) commercialisation sector which has gone from regularly trading at a premium to now languishing at a discount to net asset value or par. While that will be...
Taken over yet remaining on the stock market
Thursday 29 Jun 2017Most takeover offers require shareholders to give up their partial ownership of a company in exchange for cash or shares in the acquirer. Only in the rarest of occasions does the acquired business remain on the stock market and investors who didn’t accept the takeover offer continue to hold the...
Is this the last hurrah for private equity?
Thursday 22 Jun 2017The private equity sector is awash with cash as funds offload holdings in investee companies and investors enthusiastically put up new money in the hope of getting exposure to the next big thing. That suggests to me that we are in the final bull phase for private equity. You can’t move for...
Hung parliament terrible news for support services
Thursday 15 Jun 2017One of the most common reasons behind profit warnings over the past few years has been delays to contracts being awarded. This is either a client pushing back the start date or just sitting on their hands and not making a decision. The outcome of the UK general election inevitably means this...
Are you ready for a market correction?
Thursday 08 Jun 2017Leading stock indices in many parts of the world have hit record highs this year. Investors should be pleased, but how long can the party keep going? Coming back from a week’s holiday, my email inbox is stuffed full of comment from institutional investors discussing global equity markets. They...
Why corporate governance matters
Thursday 01 Jun 2017Companies often pay lip service to good corporate governance but it is not necessarily top of the list for investors when deciding which stocks to buy or sell. Oil services firm Petrofac ( PFC ) is just the latest example of why you ignore the way a company is run at your peril. Shares in the...
A lesson on opportunistic takeover bids
Thursday 25 May 2017A successful business which encounters a bump in the road can quickly become a takeover target if its share price drops far enough. We saw it last year with industrial suppliers Premier Farnell and Brammer; and now we’ve got textiles specialist Berendsen ( BRSN ) . Many investors will be kicking...