Bumper dividend payments were a boon to investors trying to cope with intense volatility last year, according to Henderson Global Investors February 22, 2016 Bumper dividend payments provided welcome relief for investors throughout the world last year, during a period of intense volatility. With uncertainty prevalent in global markets during 2015, dividend income almost entirely compensated investors for the $1.3 trillion decline in the values of shares, a report by Henderson said this morning. Global dividends reached $1.15 trillion in [...]
Is the UK heading for a recession? It’s too early to call – but this is how investors can potentially avoid missteps February 18, 2016 The troubled performance of credit and equity markets in the last six months suggests the chance of an imminent UK recession has risen. We’re not calling it yet but it pays to know what happened in the last financial crisis to avoid missteps. We studied the FTSE 350 earnings-per-share and stock price trends seen during [...]
Bias and behaviour: Vestra Wealth’s David Scott on investing in uncertainty February 18, 2016 What do we mean by “risk”? For some, it is the absence of certainty. Others associate it with danger. Whatever your view, it is an inevitable part of investing. Since the start of the year, investors have been dumping equities, and to some extent the rout has been self-perpetuating. As share values fall, we tend [...]
Investing in India: Reform wobbles have not jeopardised the country’s rise and rise February 18, 2016 For all the bombast, it is possible to see the still relatively new premiership of Indian leader Narendra Modi as a disappointment. Despite the Prime Minister’s overwhelming General Election victory in 2014, his promises of business-friendly reforms have remained largely unfulfilled. Crucially, the passing of an all-embracing VAT, known as the Goods and Services Tax [...]
Innovative Finance Isa: A guide to the new product and what it means for investors February 18, 2016 In less than two months, the Innovative Finance Isa will be launched, enabling savers to hold peer-to-peer (P2P) loans within the tax efficient wrapper. Hailed as the moment the P2P industry will chassé into the mainstream, research suggests it’ll also be popular with savers. According to research by P2P lending platform ThinCats, one in four [...]
Four mistakes newbie investors make – from following fads to gambling away your savings February 16, 2016 FOLLOWING FADS There are lots of esoteric areas of investment which sound fascinating and it’s easy to believe you have stumbled upon the next big thing – especially if performance has been good lately. I regularly hear from people with little saved who’ve invested in areas such as corn or liquid natural gas. Those niche [...]
Millienials want to invest for good – but what is impact investing and how do you get involved? February 11, 2016 Impact investing is moving into the mainstream. The companies on the Social Stock Exchange – the UK’s main market for impact investing – have a total combined market value of £2bn and last year raised in excess of £400m. We also saw the first LSE Main Market and Social Stock Exchange dual listing with Menhaden [...]
To fuel the pensions revolution, we need to put passion into pensions – and that means opening them up to social investing February 9, 2016 The humble nudge has worked. With around six million people now automatically enrolled into their first pension, we have reason to be hopeful that the UK is now saving for its future. However, it’s much too early to declare mission accomplished. We’re still waiting for the large number of smaller companies to enrol their employees into schemes, and they [...]
How Andorra attracted wealthy property investors by relaxing residency laws February 5, 2016 The tiny Pyrenean principality of Andorra only fully opened its doors to international investment in 2012, in order to diversify its economy. It has also now relaxed residency laws in a move towards attracting wealthier citizens. As a result, the property market, which until last year was stagnating, has begun to see a significant rise [...]
Venture Capital investing in the UK reaches $1.3bn in the last quarter of 2015, bucking global trends January 21, 2016 Venture Capital firms invested $1.3bn (£910m) in UK companies in the last three months of 2015, capping off a record-breaking year. In total, UK start-ups received $4.75bn in venture capital funding last year from 400 deals, according to the latest data from KPMG and venture capital database CB Insights. This bucked the global trend: there was a 30 [...]