Which stock markets look ‘cheap’ after the rapid rebound? June 19, 2020 | City Talk We look at how five regional markets stack up on various valuation measures. Early last week, the short answer as to which markets looked cheap was: none. Despite everything that 2020 has thrown at it, at one stage the US stock market was up for the year overall. Other markets had also regained a lot [...]
AIM shows signs of life as it celebrates its 25th birthday June 19, 2020 As AIM prepares to celebrate its 25th anniversary today, the junior market is proving remarkably resilient and adaptable. Faced with Covid turbulence, AIM has so far performed well in comparison to other markets, helping to cushion investors from the worst effects of the downturn. In the first five months of 2020, the AIM all-share index [...]
Acacia Research offloads bargain Woodford stocks June 18, 2020 The US buyer that snapped up cut-price assets from Woodford’s failed Equity Income fund has offloaded the stocks just days after the deal. Acacia Research has started to sell some of the assets it agreed to buy earlier this month. In one instance, the US firm generated a profit of £750,000 from a sale of [...]
FCA to make mini-bond marketing ban permanent following LCF scandal June 18, 2020 The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has permanently banned the mass marketing of speculative mini-bonds to ordinary investors. The ban on the mass marketing of illiquid securities comes after a series of scandals involving unregulated bonds, including the collapse of London Capital & Finance (LCF) last year. The FCA introduced a temporary ban in January amid [...]
Q&A: How can data science help investors map the route out of lockdown? June 17, 2020 | City Talk We ask Mark Ainsworth, Head of the Data Insights Unit at Schroders, how data science can help investors navigate the next phase of the Covid-19 crisis. The Covid-19 crisis has brought data into our everyday lives like never before. Where once we might have checked our news apps for the football scores, we’re now looking [...]
Johanna Kyrklund: Is retail investor surge cause for caution? June 15, 2020 | City Talk With a combination of resurgent markets, seemingly ebullient retail investors and a bleak economic outlook, it may be prudent to tread carefully. It’s an old investment cliché that when your taxi driver starts giving you share tips, it’s time to sell. As someone who has been on the receiving end of cabbie investment advice during [...]
Softbank invested in Credit Suisse funds financing its Vision Fund bets June 15, 2020 Softbank has reportedly invested over $500m (£399m) into Credit Suisse investment funds that made large bets on startups backed by the Japanese tech investment giant’s Vision Fund. Softbank invested in the Swiss lender’s $7.5bn range of supply-chain finance funds, the Financial Times reported, citing three people familiar with the matter. The funds are marketed by [...]
A green light for sustainable investments June 15, 2020 The aftershock of the Covid-19 pandemic will be felt by the economy and our financial markets for years to come, despite the encouraging signs of businesses beginning to open up. Friday’s figures revealed that the economy contracted by 20.4 per cent in April, while the Office for Budget Responsibility recently warned that the crisis could [...]
In volatile markets, big ideas are great; practical data is better June 15, 2020 | Sponsored As a trader starting out, at times the advice one reads can feel long on pithy maxims and short on useful advice. The coronavirus has spawned no dearth of “buy low, sell high” blog pieces offering well-intended tips that are ultimately too broad to be of much use. A quick Google search can tell you [...]
Eurozone investor morale improves as bloc ‘wakes from deep sleep’ June 8, 2020 Investor sentiment in the eurozone has risen this month and an assessment of investor expectations hit its highest level since November 2017, according to a new survey. Sentix’s index for the euro zone rose to -24.8 from -41.8 in May, compared with the Reuters consensus forecast for a reading of -22.5. The research firm’s current [...]