The FTSE100 is nudging higher after a report in the South China Post hinted that the US and China had reached a tentative truce in their on-going trade dispute. The index of the top 100 shares gains three points to 7,419 in early trade.Banks, builders and miners are leading the index, up 0.72%, 0.63% and 0.95% respectively, while tobacco, down 1.2%, and personal goods, down 0.82%, are a drag...

Shares' deep-value pick from a couple of months back, carpet manufacturer Airea (AIEA:AIM), has stunned the market with huge gains in earnings.Airea's stock price is up 39% today at 30p, and more than 50% since Shares' bullish call on the stock in a 25 February cover story.Gains today are on the back of full-year results which reveal a knock-out 48% gain in underlying earnings before interest,...

After providing support for the index yesterday (25 Feb) the banks - in the form of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) - weighed on the FTSE 100 today but mining stocks came to the rescue with Glencore (GLEN), Rio Tinto (RIO) and BHP Billiton (BLT) all up more than 4%. The FTSE as a whole gains 1.4% to 6096.92.RBS dives 8% to 224.2p after reporting a £2 billion loss in 2015. The lender allocated...

In some ways, investment styles are a bit like the pick 'n' mix section of a well-stocked sweet shop. Cola bottles will suit some tastes, others may prefer cola cubes; pear drops, rhubarb and custard or humbugs could prove the fancy of a completely different group. So it is with investment, every investor must make their own choices based on their own feelings towards risk, time frame and an...

The frenzy of initial public offerings (IPOs) continues to benefit intellectual property investors as they find appetite from the financial community to spin off early-stage businesses onto the stockmarket. The latest investment to come from the IP Group (IPO) estate is Xeros, which we flagged in yesterday's Shares as a potential IPO candidate. The near-waterless washing machine expert plans...