magazine archive
magazine archive
Feature
Ways of protecting your portfolio from a tech market crash
Thursday 13 Feb 2025Is there going to be a tech market crash? If so, you definitely didn’t hear it here first. Bearish commentators have been forecasting a correction in technology stock prices for almost as long as the current bull run has galloped onwards, and upwards. The bears certainly have reasons to be wary...
Cybersecurity: The sector can defend your data and your portfolio
Thursday 13 Feb 2025Imagine going for a night out in a busy pub, and when the time comes to use the loo, you leave your phone and wallet on the table unguarded. You wouldn’t. Yet your online data is, in theory, just as exposed. Don’t panic, fortunately, most of your information is secured by the clever digital locks...
Investing in bonds: Why fixed income assets are in focus and how to get exposure
Thursday 06 Feb 2025European, UK and US central banks started cutting interest rates in June, August and September 2024, respectively, yet beady-eyed investors will have noticed that 10-year bond yields are higher today than they were then. The move higher in yields reflects increasing investor nervousness over high...
Screening the UK small cap market for value, income and growth
Thursday 06 Feb 2025In the third of our four-part series on small caps (you can read part two on UK small cap funds and trusts elsewhere in this issue), we get our data-crunching caps on and take a look at key metrics around value, income and growth in the smaller companies universe. To narrow things down we limited...
Emerging markets: Chinese stimulus efforts, the Indian market and Ukraine
Thursday 30 Jan 20251. China stimulus: Equity markets in 2025 are likely to be dealing with the after-effects of last year’s election outcomes and subsequent political shifts. Of note for emerging markets in the year ahead are the risks of higher US tariffs and policy-driven volatility as the second Trump...
The Indian conglomerates which have helped drive strong returns
Thursday 30 Jan 2025Of the top 10 largest constituents of the MSCI India index, two are conglomerates and one is part of Tata Group – the largest Indian conglomerate of them all. A business structure which has gone out of the fashion in the West is clearly still very much alive and kicking in India – which is the star...
Six great small caps to buy today
Thursday 30 Jan 2025Small caps still remain largely out of favour with the market but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some great opportunities out there. True, fishing in this part of the market can be riskier than going for larger companies, and it’s really important investors understand this, but there is also the...
What I learned from a trip to SRT Marine for its AGM
Thursday 30 Jan 2025Not living in ‘the big smoke’ has many benefits, but as a journalist it does mean missing out on lots of company meeting and presentations. Now and then, however, a locally-based firm will host an event, and so it was I found myself last Thursday morning heading to Midsomer Norton, just south of...
US banks reap the spoils of post-election jump in risk assets and funding
Thursday 23 Jan 2025As we predicted a fortnight ago, US banks enjoyed strong revenue growth in the fourth quarter of 2024 helped by elevated levels of trading in stocks and bonds as well as higher investment banking fees as companies took advantage of low borrowing costs and buoyant stock markets to raise fresh...
The festive retail scorecard: who has done best and worst?
Thursday 23 Jan 2025With most of the big names in the retail sector having reported we can get a decent picture of how the sector fared in the run-up to and during the festive period. A weak trading backdrop for non-food retail in October and November, before Santa delivered a return to growth in December, a month...