Choose a professional to look after your money March 17, 2010 IF you want one of the world’s most successful fund managers to look after your money, it is time to look towards Asia. Fidelity’s Anthony Bolton has recently launched a new fund, the China Special Situations Fund, and it’s open to ISAs. While interest rates on cash ISAs remain low, equity investments can be a [...]
Get to grips with the details of ISAs March 17, 2010 A RECENT survey by Halifax said that 37 per cent of households now have an ISA. But how many of us actually use our full annual allowance or, more to the point, even know what our yearly tax-free entitlement is? And for experienced investors who already put their money to work elsewhere, the paltry returns [...]
Add corporate bonds to your ISA for income March 17, 2010 WHEN the Bank of England introduced its £200bn emergency quantitative easing (QE) programme last year, the expectation in the markets was that benchmark 10-year gilt yields would fall as the Bank soaked up the billions of pounds worth of debt that the government was issuing. In fact, yields are today much where they were a [...]
GLIMMERS OF HOPE WITHIN THE UK’S SLUGGISH RECOVERY March 17, 2010 IT seems that every week the UK economy clocks up more evidence of its disappointing recovery from the recession. The spectre of a hung parliament and a mountainous fiscal deficit is only adding to the image of the UK as the sick man of Europe. And the UK does indeed look sick. It can’t even [...]
LISTED PRODUCT NEWS March 17, 2010 BASIC RESOURCES ETF OUTPERFORM Basic resource-related ETFs issued by ETF Securities saw fantastic performance last week as investors regained their appetite for risk. The ETFX Dow Jones STOXX 600 Basic Resources Fund rose by over 9 per cent last week and the ETF is up 130.9 per cent on this time last year. The ETFX [...]
Placing of shares makes G4S look less secure as markets enjoy a strong day March 17, 2010 SHARES in security services group G4S were the biggest fallers in the leading index for the second day running, even as the market closed near a 21 month high on renewed economic optimism and a spate of takeover news. Hot on the heels of a disappointing 2010 forecast, G4S was hit by news of the [...]
NYSE trading light before quadruple witching hour March 17, 2010 US stocks gained yesterday, pushing the Dow to a 17-month high, after a benign February inflation reading supported the Federal Reserve’s renewed pledge of low interest rates. The market reacted positively to a drop in the February Producer Price Index, further supporting the near-zero interest rates that have propelled the rally in equities. On Tuesday, [...]
These days, the beautiful game is as much about the bottom line as goals March 17, 2010 I T used to be the case that the biggest day in a football fan’s life was a trip to see their side at Wembley in a cup final. For many football fans, though, it’s no longer the dream destination of Wembley that keeps them up at night. Instead, it’s the prospect of a High [...]
Policy mix in Japan not good news for the yen March 16, 2010 SPECULATION has been rife in the markets that the Bank of Japan is mulling new liquidity measures to fight the deflationary pressures that are building in the Japanese economy. And yesterday, Japanese finance minister Naoto Kan added fuel to the speculative fire, saying that the central bank can make an inflationary impact with monetary policy. [...]
YUAN CHANGE DEPENDS ON US RECOVERY March 16, 2010 LAST weekend Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao dismissed any possibility of an immediate yuan revaluation, noting: “I understand that some countries want to increase their exports, but I don’t understand the practice of depreciating their currency and forcing others to appreciate theirs in order to accomplish this. I think this is a type of trade protectionism.” [...]