One of the chocolate industry?s seasonal peaks, Easter is upon us with eggs from the world?s major brands adorning retailer?s shelves.Chocolates are tough for consumers to resist at this time of year, but is this an opportune time to put money to work with purveyors of one of the world?s most popular little luxuries?SWEET CONSUMER CATEGORYAccording to MarkNtel Advisors, the global chocolate market

One of the most popular investment trusts with AJ Bell?s ISA millionaires, City of London (CTY) is a favourite with investors seeking long-term income and capital growth and a gateway to large international companies.However, while the long-run performance record is strong, Curtis? cautious approach means the fund can underperform in some market conditions. On a 10-year share price total return ba

Investors are increasingly turning to passive investment products such as tracker funds and exchange-traded funds as they seek a low-cost, uncomplicated way to get exposure to the markets.There are numerous reasons why trackers and ETFs are filling more portfolios. Underperformance by active managers is one of them ? just 36% of active manages beat the average passive alternative in 2023 across se

Former publishing industry professional John is in his 50s and has been investing for decades, starting at a very early age.John became an investor in his late teens and has started devoting more time to it over the last 20 years. He has always had an interest in markets, even when he was a young boy of seven or eight.A CHILDHOOD INTEREST IN STOCK MARKET SUCCESSES AND FAILURESHe says: ?I read the

By his own admission, Nick Train, manager of Finsbury Growth & Income (FGT), isn?t one for nostalgia, whether that is reflecting on past glories or the ?melancholy fact? as he puts it that the popular investment trust has underperformed the FTSE All-Share index for the last three years.Moving into 2024, the trust has again lagged the benchmark with a share price return of -1.9% in January against

Following on from our coverage of Fundsmith Equity (B41YBW7) and the fact it has lagged its benchmark for three years running, another popular fund with retail investors, the Nick Train-run Finsbury Growth & Income (FGT), has also failed to outperform over the last three years.As the manager says in his December factsheet: ?This is disappointing to me and all my colleagues, because we work hard, w

Equity income trusts in demandCity of London most boughtScottish Mortgage, Finsbury Growth & Income divide opinionWith conflict in the Middle East and Ukraine creating uncertainty, and investors grappling with cost-of-living pressures as falling inflation is expected to be a drawn-out process, dependable income trusts have proved popular on the AJ Bell platform over the past month.At the same time

An upbeat trading update and revised financial targets from the UK's leading property portal Rightmove (RMV) proved a hit with investors on 27 November, but it hasn't been all plain sailing for the FTSE firm of late.At the end of October, the group's share price took a battering after US real estate giant CoStar (CSGP:NYSE) announced a £99 million all-cash offer for Rightmove's UK rival OnTheMark

Software firm beats estimatesShare buyback an added positiveStock tops FTSE 100 gainersFinance and payroll software firm Sage (SGE) pleased investors not just with its better-than-expected annual results but with a surprise share buyback on top of the raised dividend.Sage shares topped the FTSE 100 leader board with an advance of 8% to a new lifetime high of £10.76. STRONG ORGANIC GROWTHFo

Shares fall pre-market after Qataris pull-out of biddingGlazer family asking price a key sticking pointSir Jim Ratcliffe now only bidder but for 25% stakePre-market trading in Manchester United (MANU:NYSE) indicates the shares could drop over 10% after Sky News reported Jassim bin Hamal al-Thani has withdrawn his interest following months of negotiations.As of Friday's close, Manchester United sha

Persistent inflation and higher interest rates are squeezing disposable incomes. In this scenario there is logic in investors putting their cash behind companies which make premium products which confer pricing power or sell affordable luxuries which help consumers to socialise or unwind at the end of the working day.One sector that enjoys both these attributes is Beverages, the domain of soft dri

Alongside the rally in mega cap tech names since January, one of 2023's big themes is the popularity of global luxury goods stocks, with LVMH (MC:EPA), Richemont (CFR:SWX) and Hermès (RMS:EPA) hitting new share price highs amid an extraordinary boom in sales, supported by a demand rebound from China. LVMH even became the first European company to surpass $500 billion in market value.But som

Nick Train, who co-founded asset manager Lindsell Train with Michael Lindsell, is one of the UK's most-followed fund managers. His insights in commentaries for the Finsbury Growth & Income (FGT) and Lindsell Train (LTI) investment trusts are pored over by fellow stock pickers and media alike.Train and Lindsell remain actively involved in fund management and running their company until at least 202

Shares have been very volatilePrice increases and encouraging 2023 tradingPotential for analyst upgradesPosh tonics maker Fevertree Drinks (FEVR:AIM ) is due to provide a trading update next week to accompany its annual general meeting on 25 May.The company has given investors a wild ride over the last year, with the shares falling around 45% from May 2022 to September's low of 821p, before stagin

Given some of the most successful fund managers go to the trouble of calculating the average age of companies in their portfolios it is fair to conclude it is an important characteristic of how they invest.In this article we look at why longevity in companies matters and identify some of the oldest firms across the UK, Europe, and US. Later in the article we look at some of the oldest investment c

Rising interest rates designed to cool inflation are squeezing consumers' disposable incomes around the globe with spending on big ticket and discretionary items coming under pressure.Yet spending on everyday necessities, mass daily-use items that billions employ every day, is holding up rather well. That's good news for the makers of mundane products which consumers trust and depend upon; think t

Investors drawing down their pension only have selected exposure to growth stocks and in general they are sticking to income-generating shares and funds. This is according to analysis of AJ Bell's customer holdings by Shares.Many people are living for longer and are keeping their pension invested in the market in the hope of achieving capital growth as well as income. Based on AJ Bell's customer b

Optimism that the UK economy may not be as weak as once feared has lifted numerous UK stocks so far in 2023. Yet many investment trusts continue to trade at wide discounts to their net asset values - both relating to UK stocks and overseas ones. It means their share prices are worth less than the value of the investments in their portfolios.According to Winterflood data, the average investment tru

David is a 41-year-old IT consultant who first got interested in investing in 2004 after buying shares in his employer when it floated on the Indian stock market.He then started investing in the UK and US markets for his ISA and SIPP (self-invested person pension). The ISA is used to house stocks while the SIPP is comprised of funds and investment trusts.David still owns shares in the Indian compa

Fundsmith Equity (B4Q5X52), Terry Smith's flagship fund with over £22 billion of assets, is looking at its first annual loss since it was launched in November 2010.For the 11 months to the end of November 2022, the total return for the T Class Accumulation shares was -15.1% compared with a 2.8% loss for global equities (as measured by the MSCI World index in sterling), a 12.9% loss for long-dated