Mining stocks give a post-Christmas lift to the FTSE 100 as the London market reopens following the festive break. Hochschild (HOC), BHP Billiton (BLT) and Ferrexpo (FXPO) lead the pack with gains of up to 6%. The blue chip index advances 18 points or 0.3% to 7,086. Among the mid-caps, the FTSE 250 index rises 63 points or 0.4% to 17,973. The biggest corporate news of the day is a profit ...

Income is the dominant theme in this week’s edition of Shares. We talk about what to buy, what to avoid and discuss income issues specific to people in retirement. Dividends are one of the most important factors coveted by investors when weighing up which stocks or funds to buy. They are the reward for the risks associated with putting money in stock markets anywhere in the world. Sadly ...

Legal services outsourcer Fairpoint (FRP:AIM) looks to be at the mercy of its lenders after a profit warning brought year-to-date share price losses near to 90%. A cheekily timed profit warning just before the close on Friday is to blame and shares trade 11% lower at 18p today on top of heavy losses late on Friday. Earning are weak across its key divisions and the business owed £16m to ...

Personal injury marketing business NAHL (NAH) slumps 13.3% to 195p as the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) publishes a consultation document on changes to whiplash compensation. Nearly a year after they were first trailed in the 2015 Autumn Statement, the proposals seek to restrict victims' ability to claim compensation for minor whiplash injuries. Law firms operating in this area may also face ...

Shares in legal services outsourcer Fairpoint (FRP:AIM) are down around 40% since December 2015 when Shares warned of potential risks to the company’s earnings. Proposed government legislation means Fairpoint could face pressure on its profitability if new rules are implemented which change the process for making whiplash personal injury claims. However, after a significant reduction in ...

Love them or loathe them, buy-and-build business models make up a substantial share of the stock market. Companies pursuing this strategy aim to acquire businesses, usually in an industry or industry subsector, so they can gain a larger market share and perhaps ultimately enjoy higher pricing power. Increasing scale and profitability should also equate to strong shareholder returns – and ...

An acquisition-led venture into legal services has proved expensive for Fairpoint (FRP:AIM) – and could become even worse. Government consultations announced in November 2015 aimed at clamping down on spurious whiplash claims from road traffic accident (RTA) victims could have a severe impact on the UK personal injury claims market, three quarters of which comes from RTAs. Around £20 ...

The search for income has been at the top of many investors’ agenda in 2015. We all love to sit back and scoop up the cash from dividends. Sadly, the risks associated with dividends are becoming elevated amid corporate cash flow pressures. Anyone who depends on dividend income to pay the bills or maintain a decent lifestyle should take a close look at equity income funds. For a small fee you ...

A headlong commercial rush into the liberalised British legal services market is not turning out to be a goldmine. Shares in the world’s first listed consumer legal services firm, Slater & Gordon (SGH:ASX), dropped 30% after a UK Government proposal to change the claims process for minor whiplash injuries. Legal marketing firm NAHL (NAH:AIM), a sector bellwether because of its sensitivity ...

London’s blue chip FTSE 100 index is dragged lower by ailing commodities stocks, falling 0.3% to 6,371. Asian exchanges traded lower overnight with ongoing economic concerns on China and a potential December US  interest rate hike weighing on Hong Kong in particular. The Hang Seng index fell 1.9%. Sterling weakness continues into the end of the week. Trading at $1.505 it is around 2 cents ...

Professional services outfit Fairpoint (FRP:AIM) promised its shareholders acquisitions this year in an attempt to grow out of a slump in its core debt management and assistance business. Today it delivered a deal worth up to £16 million to buy Colemans, a consumer legal services business specialising in personal injury, volume conveyancing and travel law. Acquisitions in legal services are ...

As the 20th birthday celebrations for AIM get into full swing, now is a perfect time to reappraise the junior market. Within the myriad of small, growing companies is a healthy number of high-quality businesses which look attractive investments. If you’re nervous about picking the wrong stock and losing a big chunk of your money in one go, a solution is to get diversified exposure and tap into ...

With spring now in full season and the clocks moved to British Summer Time, it’s the perfect time to take a fresh look at your finances and build an investment pot for later in life. This article tells you how to build your ISA the low-cost, easy way. Our exercise is not solely aimed at beginners. There’s plenty of people who are actively trading stocks to make quick profits, but who don’t ...

Eagle Eye (EYE:AIM) 165p AIM is littered with strugglers chasing the mobile commerce dream but Eagle Eye is off to a decent start. SMS marketing and vouchers space has potential, but this is also high-risk territory. Earthport (EPO:AIM) 45.25p New management is key to ending years of failure and cash calls. Making rapid progress to promised global platform for medium-sized cross-border ...

A £68,000 investment in shares (7 Oct) by chairman David Harrel at 135.5p is a bullish signal for debt management company Fairpoint (FRP:AIM). With the business undergoing a shift away from individual voluntary agreements (IVAs) and increasing exposure to new growth avenues such as legal services, now is a good time to reassess the small cap. Fairpoint helps people in financial difficulty get ...

You know that equity valuations are toppy when none other than the Federal Reserve’s chair Janet Yellen warns of ‘signs of excess’, specifically raising concerns about the price of smaller companies, social media and biotechnology firms. But despite this challenging backcloth the savvy stock picker who is willing to spend the time to seek out value can still unearth bargains if they look ...

In previous economic cycles corporate and individual insolvencies fell as interest rates rose. We now expect both individual and corporate insolvency rates to rise in tandem with a gradual increase in interest rates. In the corporate insolvencies space we favour Begbies Traynor (BEG:AIM) while in the personal insolvency arena our top selection is Fairpoint (FPR:AIM). Rising rates are symptomatic ...

Picking stocks requires a lot of effort so having someone else do the hard work via a fund can be attractive, albeit the money manager will charge a fee for their services which is built into the product. There’s plenty on offer for income seekers from either closed-ended or open-ended funds. In fact, many products in this arena are specifically labelled as income funds making it easy to see ...

Getting the most possible growth for the lowest available price is not a bad point of departure for an investment philosophy. That is exactly what practitioners of the theoretical framework known as ‘growth at a reasonable price’, or Garp, attempt to achieve. Looking at growth in isolation and ignoring other considerations, such as business risk and the quality and sustainability of a ...

Britain is in rude economic health and set to grow faster than any of the other major G7 developed nations. That’s according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which last week (8 Apr) announced a material 0.5% upgrade to the country’s 2014 GDP forecast to 2.9%, from 2.4% as little as three months ago. But the recovery is not without risks as the Washington-based forecasting body warns ...