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Big News

UK dividend growth under threat

Thursday 17 Oct 2019

Dividends from UK stocks may not be as reliable as investors have come to believe. The latest Dividend Monitor report from Link Asset Services shows that while dividends rose 6.9% on a headline basis to £35.5bn in the third quarter, growth was entirely driven by one-off factors and currency...

Woodford Equity Income wind-up shakes fund industry to its core

Thursday 17 Oct 2019

In a bitter blow to the savings industry, LF Woodford Equity Income Fund is to be wound up and monies returned to investors starting in January 2020. Neil Woodford’s eponymous Woodford Investment Management is no longer running the fund, whose authorised corporate director Link Fund Solutions...

Could debt concerns at rival help Domino's Pizza?

Thursday 17 Oct 2019

According to press reports popular casual dining company Pizza Express is under pressure over its financial position and any resulting retrenchment by the chain could relieve some of the competitive pressure on listed pizza takeaway firm Domino’s Pizza ( DOM ) . Pizza Express has hired adviser...

Shareholder dissent remains muted

Thursday 17 Oct 2019

Given some high profile corporate disasters of late, including the likes of Carillion, Patisserie Valerie and Thomas Cook, you might have expected shareholders to be champing at the bit to hold companies to account. However, data from Minerva Analytics 2019 UK Voting Review shows shareholder...

First glimpse at how stocks could react to positive Brexit deal

Thursday 17 Oct 2019

Investors were offered a window last Friday (11 Oct) into how an actual Brexit agreement might be received by the markets. Many UK-focused companies saw double-digit share price gains including Royal Bank of Scotland ( RBS ) and Lloyds ( LLOY ) , helping to fuel the biggest two-day rally for...

TUI and Jet2-owner Dart capitalise on Thomas Cook ‘game-changer’

Thursday 17 Oct 2019

The demise of British travel giant Thomas Cook could provide a significant boost to other tour operators, according to analysts covering the sector who have had time to weigh up the potential gains for various London-listed stocks. Shore Capital analyst Greg Johnson says Thomas Cook’s collapse ‘...

Investors won’t have made much from FAANG stocks this year

Thursday 10 Oct 2019

The leading US technology shares known as the FAANGs, an acronym for Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google, have led the stock market higher during the past five years, outperforming the MSCI World index by 139% since October 2014. However on a relative basis the group has started to lag the...

Recruiters, insurers and the week’s other big news

Thursday 10 Oct 2019

Recruitment firms were heavily under the cosh on 8 October with Robert Walters ( RWA ) and Michael Page ( PAGE ) falling by nearly 10% apiece as they cut earnings guidance. Both companies attributed their struggles to political and economic uncertainty. PageGroup lowered its operating profit...

Why stock markets around the world plunged last week

Thursday 10 Oct 2019

Last week was not a good one for stock market investors in pretty much every part of the world. Big countries from the UK to India, Brazil to China, and the US to Japan, saw their main stock markets plunge amid concerned over the prospects for global growth. Already fragile thanks to the threat of...

US trade war extends to European shores

Thursday 10 Oct 2019

Last week the World Trade Organisation (WTO) gave the US the green light to impose billions of dollars of tariffs on European companies in retaliation for more than a decade of EU subsidies on large aircraft. Specifically the WTO found ‘that certain subsidies provided by the European Union and...

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