magazine archive
magazine archive
Editor's View
The FTSE 100 hits 40: can it shake off a mid-life crisis?
Thursday 21 Dec 2023On 3 January 2024, the FTSE 100 celebrates its 40th anniversary. And to borrow a cliche - it seems an opportune moment to ask, will life for the index truly begin at 40 or will it be plunged into a mid-life crisis? The index was launched as a replacement for the FT-30, which as its name suggests...
Don’t get carried away with DG Innovate and its Tesla trio
Thursday 14 Dec 2023On 11 December 2023, a teeny company on the UK stock market saw a sudden surge in interest. Shares in Yorkshire-based EV (electric vehicle) technology firm DG Innovate ( DGI:AIM ) almost tripled as three former senior Tesla (TSLA:NASDAQ) executives joined the board. Taking over as chief executive...
Learning big lessons from Calnex and Synthomer mistakes
Thursday 07 Dec 2023As we approach the end of the year it is a good time to take stock with your investing, and it’s no different for the team at Shares . We do our best to furnish you with strong investment ideas every week, but we clearly do not get it right every time. Two big losers from the last 12 months or so...
Find out why lithium is getting interesting again
Thursday 30 Nov 2023An insight into the extent to which environmental issues have faced push-back in 2023 is the performance of lithium. The raw element, a key component in batteries for EVs (electric vehicles), has plunged in value in 2023. It’s an opaque market but most sources suggest prices have dropped by at...
Have investors priced in peak rates too early (again)?
Thursday 23 Nov 2023The market seems to have called it – interest rates have peaked, the battle against inflation is over and we can start returning to something akin to the market conditions experienced in the decade or so before Covid when rates and prices were firmly under control. This is a crude simplification,...
There are signs of life in the London commercial property market
Thursday 16 Nov 2023There was a telling piece of information in the latest trading update from UK property investor British Land ( BLND ) . Faced with a situation where Facebook-owner Meta Platforms (META:NASDAQ) had decided break its lease on 1 Triton Square on British Land’s Regent’s Place ‘campus’ (at a cost to the...
The time to buy shares is when fund managers are sitting on cash (like now)
Thursday 09 Nov 2023In my first column as editor (19 June 2014) I suggested cash, not equities, was front of mind for investors. At the time, fund managers were increasing their cash positions, and figures from State Street showed that UK retail investors had 43% of their assets in cash. You might have interpreted...
Discover what conflict in Middle East means for gold and oil
Thursday 02 Nov 2023Since the conflict in Gaza started on 7 October gold and oil prices have both enjoyed high single-digit gains. It’s tough for stocks when gold and oil are moving in concert, as is demonstrated by the commensurate 4% fall in the MSCI World in the same period. This makes sense. Markets struggle with...
All change for ISAs at the Autumn Statement? This is what to expect
Thursday 26 Oct 2023There is chatter that the Government is open to reforming ISAs, the savings accounts which shelter capital gains and income from the taxman. The chancellor’s Autumn Statement on 22 November might shed light on how they might evolve. Ahead of that event, here is what Shares believes might, or might...
Want to invest in the casual dining sector? Here’s some bad news
Thursday 19 Oct 2023Private equity firm Apollo succeeding with its takeover of Restaurant Group ( RTN ) would represent a major turning point for the UK stock market. It would mean investors could no longer access a high street-focused casual dining chain operator on the London Stock Exchange of any scale. Restaurant...