Pawning the family treasure: Rare chess piece set to fetch up to £1m June 3, 2019 A rare and long-lost medieval chess piece could fetch up to £1m at an auction in Edinburgh tomorrow. Sotheby’s is putting a Lewis Chessman piece up for sale some 55 years after it was snapped up by an eagle-eyed Edinburgh antiques dealer for £5. Read more: David Hockney's pool painting breaks record for living artist [...]
Six investment trusts that pay a monthly income June 3, 2019 | City Talk By Kyle Caldwell from interactive investor. Just six investment trusts pay investors on a monthly basis. New research reveals which ones. It has never been easier for do-it-yourself investors to assemble an income portfolio, as over the past couple of years both open-ended funds and investment trusts have moved to pay income more frequently than [...]
‘Return of the CDO’ – how scary could that sequel prove? June 3, 2019 | City Talk CDOs 2 (complete, of course, with the tagline ‘Just when you thought it was safe to go back into collateral debt obligations’) is unlikely to have filmgoers queuing round the block – and yet ‘Overconfident group reckon they can do better than previous set of unfortunates in the face of all warnings and evidence to [...]
Three reasons why the UK stock market looks compelling May 31, 2019 | City Talk Whatever the opposite of a sweet spot is, many investors think UK equities are currently in one. With Brexit still unresolved, some have put the market in the “too difficult” basket. While it is understandable to fear uncertainty, as stock pickers we embrace the mis-priced opportunities created by it. The global nature of the market [...]
Burberry fails to stop the selling May 31, 2019 | City Talk Hard-won gains continue to evaporate as Burberry does no more than expected, writes our head of markets. Still being in the early stages of its transformation plan is dragging on these full-year numbers, but there is little doubt that Burberry's (LSE:BRBY)aspirations are high. Revitalising its iconic brand may take some time, but Burberry seems well-positioned. [...]
Investors given second chance to buy a piece of Star Wars May 30, 2019 | City Talk By Rodney Hobson from interactive investor. This iconic brand has rewarded shareholders handsomely, and could do again, argues our overseas expert. Investors could be forgiven for thinking they had missed their chance to buy into The Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) when the shares shot up 10% one April day, and then went on to set new [...]
Should you really sell in May and go away – What is the truth of the old stock market saying? May 30, 2019 There are many phrases used to try to capture trends or patterns that supposedly appear in the movement of share prices over the years. For example, the concept of a “Santa Rally” suggests that stock prices increase in the run up to Christmas. Yet one of the oldest such phrases is “sell in May and [...]
Sydney shares cheer Australia’s centre-right election triumph May 29, 2019 | City Talk Australian share prices are on a roll after the shock election victory earlier this month of the ruling Liberal-Nation coalition. The centre-right government returned to power in Canberra despite consistent opinion poll leads for the opposition Labor Party. The ASX 200 index, comprising the shares of the 200 largest companies listed on the Australian Stock [...]
UK banks: What to make of Lloyds, RBS and Barclays? May 29, 2019 | City Talk By Graeme Evans from interactive investor. Having underperformed since April's stock market peak, here's what to expect from the domestic lenders. With UK banks making heavy weather of Q1 results and the Brexit shackles still in place, there's a clear lack of momentum behind shares of Lloyds Banking Group (LSE:LLOY), Barclays (LSE:BARC) and The Royal [...]
Coping with our confusing and expensive childcare system May 29, 2019 Childcare is notoriously expensive in the UK. For UK parents with two children, around 46 per cent of household income goes towards childcare – the highest of all OECD countries – while prices have risen three per cent in the past year, according to the UK’s Childcare Survey 2019. “With the cost of full-time childcare [...]