magazine archive
magazine archive
Feature
Why Brazil’s Bovespa index is buoyant
Thursday 29 Aug 2019The election of the perceived market-friendly Jair Bolsonaro as president in October 2018 has proved a strong catalyst for Brazilian equities in 2019. The flagship Bovespa index is up a healthy 13.2% so far this year, compared with an 11.1% advance for the FTSE All-World, according to data from...
Should you snap up the income on offer from retail bonds?
Thursday 01 Aug 2019Income-seeking investors have had a notoriously difficult time in recent years. As interest rates have remained at rock-bottom and quantitative easing sparked a flood of money into fixed income assets, the yields paid by bonds collapsed. As a result, investors have been forced to move up the risk...
Emerging markets: Views from the experts
Thursday 25 Jul 20191 . The United States and China agreed to resume trade talks at the G20 summit in late June. The United States also decided against imposing new tariffs and easing some restrictions on Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, while China agreed to substantial purchases of agricultural and other...
Middle East investing moves into the mainstream
Thursday 25 Jul 2019The elevation of the Kuwaiti stock market from frontier to emerging market status is the latest sign that the region is moving steadily towards the mainstream in investment terms. Index providers FTSE Russell and MSCI both welcomed Saudi Arabia to the emerging markets club earlier this year in a...
Franchise firms can earn you tasty capital gains and juicy income
Thursday 11 Jul 2019Companies with franchise business models have often been very good investments over the years. Many have been able to pay generous dividends as well as deliver capital growth for shareholders. Well-run franchises provide investors with defensive characteristics as well as growth opportunities, and...
Our 2019 picks are beating the market hands down
Thursday 04 Jul 2019At the halfway point of the year our key selections for 2019 are doing superbly. Our average gain of 18.3% compares with an 11.2% gain for the FTSE All-Share over the same time period. Pleasingly not a single selection is in negative territory and four names are up by more than a quarter on our...
What are preference shares and should you buy them?
Thursday 04 Jul 2019A little understood part of the market, preference shares could be worth a look for some investors. A hybrid financial instrument with characteristics of both equities and bonds, they might appeal to older investors looking for a steady and reliable yield. WHAT ARE PREFERENCE SHARES? There are two...
Emerging Markets: Why Russia has outperformed
Thursday 27 Jun 2019Russian growth has proved to be fairly robust of late despite the pressure from volatile oil prices, international sanctions and structural issues in the economy. The country’s flagship Russian Trading System (RTS) index has outperformed both the US S&P 500 and the UK’s FTSE 100 over both a one...
Emerging Markets: Views from the Experts
Thursday 27 Jun 20191 . NEW TARIFFS Market sentiment turned negative in May, when concerns emerged of an escalation in the US-China trade war. Undoubtedly, the increase in tariffs will impact many Chinese producers, with some companies already shifting manufacturing to other countries. However, China is becoming less...
Shares’ ESG portfolio: seven funds to buy now
Thursday 27 Jun 2019There are now a multitude of investments offering exposure to ESG themes as investors seek to benefit from environmental, social and governance strategies. Having researched the space for our two-part series on ESG investing, we’ve pulled together a portfolio of active and passive funds which...