magazine archive
magazine archive
Feature
Finding income in a sea of dividend cuts
Thursday 09 Apr 2020This year has seen 233 London-listed companies either cancel, cut or suspend their dividends, principally because of the coronavirus crisis. This is terrible news for anyone who relies on their investments for income. In many instances, even previously-declared dividends are not going to be paid, a...
Experts are feeling more optimistic about Chinese stocks and funds
Thursday 09 Apr 2020As the city of Wuhan ends its 11-week quarantine, it seems that life in China is more or less getting back to ‘normal’. Although a handful of new virus cases are being reported, the draconian measures the government took to limit the virus mean the country is recovering just as the rest of the...
How are companies coping with the strain on their finances?
Thursday 02 Apr 2020One of the most striking features of the current crisis, from a stock market perspective, is how sharply and suddenly UK firms have cut their dividends in response to the drop in demand for their goods or services. In March alone, UK companies cancelled or postponed more than £4bn in forecast...
How have technology funds performed this year?
Thursday 02 Apr 2020Most investors tend to view the technology space as high growth AND high risk, yet performance data of tech funds shows an underappreciated resilience during the coronavirus sell-off. That fund values have fallen in absolute terms is understandable given the widespread sell-off in global stock...
Investors’ pain relief: your guide to getting through this tricky period
Thursday 02 Apr 2020All market corrections are different and have different causes, and the one currently being experienced has been notable for both its scale and speed, and for the fact it is being driven by a health emergency rather than a financial one. The simple fact is many investors will have been caught off...
The companies standing amid coronavirus headwinds
Thursday 26 Mar 2020Few firms will be left unscathed from the knock-on economic effects of global actions to contain coronavirus, with recession almost assured over the next few months. The burden will certainly be felt most in the consumer facing sectors of the economy, but not all businesses will be affected to the...
Why these stocks have performed so badly in the coronavirus crisis
Thursday 26 Mar 2020While a large part of the public has been panic buying amid the coronavirus pandemic, an even bigger percentage of investors have been doing the opposite. Panic selling has been rife across stock markets in recent weeks, leading the share prices of many companies to tumble dramatically. Some of the...
What is happening with UK earnings forecasts?
Thursday 26 Mar 2020Financial analysts often come in for criticism for ‘herding’ together when compiling their earnings forecasts, but when companies themselves have no idea where earnings are going to be a year from now it may be time to cut them some slack. What we know from multiple previous business cycles is that...
Emerging markets: Views from the experts
Thursday 26 Mar 20201 . The Covid-19 coronavirus led the narrative in February, as a spike in new cases outside of China heightened global uncertainty. Expectations of weaker-than-expected global energy and metals demand growth (especially from China) also led commodity prices to decline in February. Although this...
Just what is an emerging market?
Thursday 26 Mar 2020First used in the 1980s, the term ‘emerging markets’ refers to countries which are seen as being in the transition from a developing to a developed economy. Among the largest and most well-established are Brazil, Russia, India and China. The nature of the populations of emerging market countries or...