Halal digital investment platform gets FCO approval August 21, 2018 The UK's first digital Halal investment platform has been approved by the Financial Conduct Authority. New York-based Wahed will invest in a global portfolio of ethically responsible stocks, Islamic bonds and gold, which will be assessed by a full time ethical review board. The board will screen against funds related to excess debt, tobacco, alcohol, firearms, gambling, adult [...]
Market influencer: City brokers look for the likes as social media boosts brands’ growth August 21, 2018 Brokers are hitting “like” on companies that have strong social media engagement, as UBS yesterday became the latest to factor Instagram influence into its ratings. The Swiss bank announced that it will now track the performance of 19 luxury brands on Instagram and Google Search,tracking “social media heat”. Analyst Julie Zhuang said there is a [...]
Flying cars, AI and blockchain: These are the top tech trends in Gartner’s 2018 Hype Cycle August 20, 2018 Artificial intelligence (AI), self-driving cars and distributed ledger technology – otherwise known as blockchain – are among this year’s emerging technology trends, though some have moved closer to the so-called trough of disillusionment. Research firm Gartner’s annual hype cycle, which tracks where tech trends are on their journey from an idea to mainstream usage, today determined driverless [...]
Sage shares plummet after Deutsche Bank’s investor warning August 20, 2018 Sage shares tumbled by as much as seven per cent on Monday following Deutsche Bank’s recommendation that investors sell the stock, saying the accounting software firm faced intense competition in its mid-market. The back office IT services business, which also offers enterprise resource planning and HR software, saw shares slip to £6.19 after the bank’s advisory [...]
Luxury retail app Farfetch is heading to Wall Street for a multi-billion dollar listing August 20, 2018 E-commerce marketplace Farfetch, which is based in the UK and specialises in luxury brands and high-end fashion, today filed an intention to list on the New York Stock Exchange. No details were given on the amount it expects to raise or the offer price per share, however analytics firm Pitchbook valued the listing to take [...]
AI could lead to mass unemployment, warns Bank of England August 20, 2018 Widespread reskilling is essential to avert a future in which AI creates long-term unemployment, the Bank of England’s chief economist warned on Monday. Andy Haldane predicted that machine automation will lead to a “hollowing out” of the jobs market “on a much greater scale in the future” than during the revolutions of coal, electricity and computing [...]
Energy switching startup breaks record for lowest equity deal on Dragons Den August 19, 2018 Energy auto-switching service Look After My Bills (LAMB) has broken the record for the lowest equity deal ever secured on hit TV show Dragons Den, as the startup scored £120,000 in exchange for a three per cent stake. Investors Tej Lalvani and Jenny Campbell took on the startup after a three-hour deliberation, in which all [...]
Tesla short-sellers have the last laugh August 19, 2018 Tesla short-sellers have made a bumper $1.2bn (£940m) paper profit since the car company’s colourful chief executive Elon Musk said he is considering taking the business private. Despite making some initial gains in the immediate aftermath of Musk’s tweet on 7 August, in which he declared that funding for the move had been secured, the [...]
Tesla shares fall as analysts cast doubt on Model 3 profitability August 17, 2018 Tesla's share price slumped as much as eight per cent in trading today, after a note was published this afternoon expressing concern over the fate of its Model 3 sedan. UBS analyst Colin Langan said Tesla's Model 3 will fail to produce better profit margins than a standard BMW sedan due to miscalculations on manufacturing costs. [...]
Gartner Hype Cycle 2017: Artificial intelligence at peak hype, blockchain heads for disillusionment, but say hello to 5G August 17, 2018 The hype around artificial intelligence is at its peak, while those interested in blockchain might be heading for disillusionment. That’s according to Gartner’s annual Hype Cycle, which tracks the progress of emerging technology trends, from early innovation to becoming a household must-have. Deep learning and machine learning are at what it calls the “peak of [...]