UK stocks opened higher on Thursday, led by mining companies as commodities prices, notably copper, continued to advance, with Anglo American (AAL), Glencore (GLEN), Antofagasta (ANTO) and Rio Tinto (RIO) all catching a bid early on. By 9 am, the FTSE 100 was trading 0.65% higher at 7,188.22 points, while the FTSE 250 was up 0.7% at 22,793.72. Brent Crude pushed ahead 0.8% to $83.85 per ...

UK stocks made modest gains into the early afternoon session with the FTSE 100 index of leading shares registering a 0.2% gain at midday to 7,178 points. The midcap FTSE 250 index saw similar gains of 0.2% to 24,264 points. Markets are eagerly awaiting the August US non-farm payrolls data due to be released at 1.30pm London time. The rate of job creation is seen as a key input into the ...

Electronics engineer DiscoverIE (DSCV) has ploughed £77 million on acquisitions in the US and UK as it continues to expand its presence in the customised electronic components industry. US firm Logic PD, better known as Beacon, makes embedded computing boards and is being acquired for $80.5 million (£58.8 million) cash. It had sales of $28.1 million in 2020 and an underlying profit of ...

DiscoverIE Group (DSCV) 854p Gain to date: 42% Original entry point: Buy at 600p, 10 December 2020 Shares in specialist electronics maker DiscoverIE (DCSV) continue to power ahead following an increase in earnings guidance in April and a positive pre-close trading update at the start of this month. Thanks to the firm’s focus on specific markets, sales for the full year were down ...

DiscoverIE (DSCV) 797p Gain to date: 32.8% Original entry point: Buy at 600p, 10 December 2020 Electronics engineer DiscoverIE (DSCV) is riding high after its latest trading update drove material upgrades to analysts’ earnings forecasts. The company designs and manufactures bespoke kit for highly regulated industries including healthcare, renewables, transport and aerospace. On ...

London’s FTSE 100 finished Tuesday’s session down 2% at 6,859.87 as stronger sterling and resurgent concerns about the course of the global Covid-19 pandemic weighed on investor sentiment, while tobacco stocks remained weak amid reports of US regulatory pressure. On Wall Street the S&P 500 was down 0.9% at 4,128.07 by 4.30pm UK time. TOBACCO STOCKS TUMBLE Shares in British American ...

Electronics engineer DiscoverIE (DSCV) has been on quite a journey  in recent years, pulling itself up the supplier value chain by executing a clear strategy. This ambitious adventure is far from over. We believe the company’s success will soon lead to its share price trading beyond 750p for the first time in 20 years. We have followed the DiscoverIE growth story for quite some time ...

UK blue chip stocks have taken direction from Wall Street and ended the week at a nine-month high as US stocks hit new records, following a weak jobs report which is expected to put pressure on US policymakers to greenlight a stimulus package. The US economy, which is the world’s largest, added just 245,000 jobs – less than half the 500,000 jobs analysts had been expecting – in November ...

The FTSE 100 has continued to climb throughout trading on Friday with a steady flow of positive news boosting investor sentiment. Reuters reports that a Brexit trade deal could be ‘imminent’ with an agreement expected by the end of the weekend barring any last minute breakdown in talks, while construction industry data released earlier today also provided optimism having beat all ...

The UK’s FTSE 100 hit a nine-month high on Friday as a jump in oil prices boosted energy stocks and mild optimism over Brexit talks lifted the mood as the deadline closes in. This offset the drag following news that US drugs giant Pfizer has had to slash its roll-out target of its Covid-19 vaccine. The benchmark FTSE 100 was up 0.7% in early trade at 6,534.52 with oil majors Royal Dutch Shell ...

As the UK continues to step lightly through the coronavirus pandemic’s social distancing minefield, many investors have turned their back on the small cap space. This is a mistake. We can understand why small caps might not appeal to everyone at the moment, given this space can include unproven business models and fragile balance sheets. It can also be harder to sell small cap shares when ...

DISCOVERIE (DSCV) 445p Gain to date: 9.6% Original entry point: Buy at 406p, 14 February 2019 For electronics engineer DiscoverIE (DSCV) to put up half year revenue growth of 9%, 5% organically, is pretty good going given the prevailing economic uncertainty (10 Oct). That the order book increased 15% (11% organically) to £153m is further evidence of the company’s success in ...

DISCOVERIE (DSCV) 434p Gain to date: 6.9% Original entry point: Buy at 406p, 14 February 2019 Enhanced growth prospects and reduced debt is how one analyst describes the latest situation for electronics engineer DiscoverIE (DSCV).   Last week the company forked out £15.9m on a pair of custom design engineering businesses – Hobart Electronics and Positek – with ...

Many retail investors avoid small cap companies as there is a perception that the space is littered with too many inexperienced management teams, unproven business models and threadbare balance sheets. Then there’s the extra volatility and difficulties in even buying and selling these types of shares. This is perhaps why tapping into the expert help of a specialist fund manager is often ...

We like the effort to secure higher value business at electronics engineer DiscoverIE (DSCV). This used to be a fairly simple distributor of parts and components in the industry and today around 40% of revenue still comes from long-run contracts to supply bits of kit. But that is where the company has come from, not where it is going. During the past few years it has made a deliberate attempt ...

Last year (2017) saw a record-breaking £46bn of cash invested into UK funds, almost 600% more than in 2016 when initial fears about the UK’s decision to leave the EU caused investors to pull money out of funds in droves.  It’s easy to see why funds are popular as you get exposure to lots of different assets through a single product.  Unfortunately, knowing which fund to pick can be ...

London markets get off to a fairly slow start on Tuesday with the blue-chip FTSE 100 index sliding around 20 points to 7,722 in early trading. Acting as a drag is banking group Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) as the UK Government says it plans to sell another slug of its stake in the bank left over from the 2008 bailout. Confirmation comes through today of a 7.7% share stake will be sold at a ...

Dr Paul Jourdan has won Best UK Smaller Companies FE Alpha Manager Award 2018, beating off competition from a short list of more 70 other fund managers. Jourdan runs the TB Amati UK Smaller Companies Fund (GB00B2NG4R39). It has delivered a total return performance of 27.9% over the past year, almost twice that of its IA UK Smaller Companies benchmark (15.7%), and in 2017 chalked-up a ...

Investors tend to flock to the most popular options when it comes to choosing investment funds and trusts. This herd mentality means many people are missing out on some first-class investments simply because they are under the radar. But seeking out these lesser-known names could provide a serious boost to your returns; several investment trusts which would have tripled your money over the past ...