magazine archive
magazine archive
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Great value UK stocks: Where to find the biggest bargains
Thursday 24 Oct 2024The fact the UK market is cheap relative to its international peers is hardly new news to anyone who has been investing for a few years, and the reason usually given is the UK doesn’t have the same exposure to growth stocks as markets like the US. When the bulk of the gains in the S&P 500 over...
Small-world: a whistle-stop tour of the comings and goings in UK small-caps
Thursday 24 Oct 2024We start this month with more takeovers, beginning with fashion-to-homewares retailer N Brown Group (BWNG:AIM) , whose shares had been on a tear, more than doubling from their multi-year lows of 14p in May, well before this month’s bid came in. On 17 October, the board announced it had agreed an...
Weight-loss drug stock rally: is it over or simply catching its breath?
Thursday 24 Oct 2024Investing in firms which develop and sell life-changing drugs has been a rewarding trade over the past five years. The MSCI World Healthcare index has returned 73%, according to FE Fundinfo, nearly twice the return of the FTSE 100 (42%) in dollar terms. Over the long term, those kind of returns are...
Expectations for tech stocks are high this earnings season
Thursday 17 Oct 2024The US third-quarter earnings season is already upon us and with it earnings from the biggest drivers of the stock market rally this year, the so-called ‘Magnificent Seven’. Given the consensus forecast for S&P 500 earnings growth for 2024 is 15%, and with Technology and Communication Services...
The UK market’s buyback boom shows no signs of letting up
Thursday 17 Oct 2024As tobacco firm Imperial Brands (IMB) announced its latest share buyback, there was an extraordinary, albeit logical, observation from broker Panmure Liberum. Analyst Rae Maile noted that, if it continued at its current pace, the company stood a good chance of buying back all of its shares within a...
The seven deadly sins of investing: the big pitfalls to avoid
Thursday 17 Oct 2024There is a huge body of academic work highlighting behavioural biases which consistently trip-up investors’ supposedly rational thinking. In this article we look at seven big sins of investing, with some examples and insights on how to avoid them. A lot of the credit for these principles goes to...
Big returns from small caps: How the experts find the stars of the future and our three best ideas
Thursday 10 Oct 2024Over the long haul, small-caps have historically outperformed large caps, fuelling the research highlighting the so-called ‘small-cap effect’ – the idea that smaller companies offer higher risk-adjusted returns than larger ones. Unfortunately, the higher interest rate environment of recent years...
A crunch Budget: What is in store for the markets and your money?
Thursday 03 Oct 2024Prime minister Keir Starmer and chancellor Rachel Reeves have made no bones about making ‘painful’ decisions in order to stabilise public finances and grow the economy, so investors are right to be nervous over what might be included in the Labour party’s first Budget since 2009 at the end of this...
Will China’s stimulus package make a difference for investors?
Thursday 03 Oct 2024On 24 September, the PBOC (People’s Bank of China) unveiled a major stimulus package to support economic growth, promote the expansion of consumption and investment and throw a lifeline to struggling industries and sectors. The central bank also announced a 800-billion-yuan ($114 billion) lending...
Small World: AI and healthcare IPOs and big contract wins
Thursday 26 Sep 2024We start the review on a positive note with the news of two small-cap IPOs (initial public offers), one in the healthcare space and one in the red-hot AI (artificial intelligence) space. Having sold its governance, risk and compliance software business to private equity earlier this year and...