magazine archive
magazine archive
Editor's View
Focus on sector data to get the investing edge
Thursday 31 Aug 2017The majority of stock market commentary in the mainstream media focuses on the performance of the FTSE 100 or the FTSE All-Share. In order to better understand what’s going on, we believe it is worth drilling down to the sector level to see which industries are faring well and which are struggling...
Should you tolerate odd decisions by directors?
Thursday 24 Aug 2017What happens if a company in which you have an investment makes odd decisions? Selling the shares might not always be the best course of action if the company eventually proves its decisions were wise. As an investor you will need to decide whether to put your trust in the directors or not. Selling...
Shell goes electric
Thursday 17 Aug 2017In last week’s Editor’s View we mentioned Trump as a possible catalyst for a summer sell off and so it is proving. And having reached two month highs in late July crude oil prices have endured another round of volatility partly inspired by the spat between North Korea and the US. Oil often appears...
Black Monday two years on
Thursday 10 Aug 2017The two-year anniversary of Black Monday (24 Aug 2015), when global stock markets endured their biggest one day fall since 2008, is fast approaching. The significant and widespread sell-off began 10 trading days earlier, when the FTSE 100 was around the 6,700 mark, and was prompted by fears over...
What dollar dive means for markets
Thursday 03 Aug 2017In early 2017 sterling traded at levels against the dollar which had not been seen since the mid-1980s and some observers were predicting the two currencies could reach parity. Amid reports Theresa May was committed to a so-called ‘hard’ Brexit the UK currency tanked against its US counterpart and...
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...