Leading UK shares edged higher on what is expected to be a relatively quiet day, given that US markets are closed for the Thanksgiving holiday, with ex-dividend stocks acting as a brake on larger gains. At 9.00am, the benchmark FTSE 100 was 7.5 points or 0.1% at 7,294.13 despite worries about further lockdowns in Europe, particularly Germany, and the continuing pricing pressures which are ...

Brexit-induced panic seems to have faded with the markets in more upbeat mood on Friday, the FTSE 100 up 22.3 points at 7,060 and the FTSE 250 rebounding by 36 points to 18,698, although investors will be watching like a hawk for any new indicators of whether parliament is likely to approve or reject Theresa May’s Brexit plan. In corporate news, construction play Kier (KIE) improves 27.5p ...

This year is set to be the best on record for Britain’s renewables electricity network, according to data provided by National Grid (NG.). Thirteen different clean energy records have been broken in 2017 as demand for solar, wind, hydro and biomass-sourced power soars. Achievements during the course of the year include the greenest summer ever; the first full day since the Industrial ...

Can a company use its powers as a shareholder to appoint directors to the board of a rival business and potentially influence how it is run? We’ve just seen Ecotricity try to appoint two non-executive directors to the board of rival energy supplier Good Energy (GOOD:AIM). Retailer Sports Direct (SPD) tried to do the same a few years ago with Findel (FDL). Ecotricity has built up a ...

Donald Trump's surprise victory in the hotly contested US presidential election has sent shockwaves through many industries including the energy sector. Fears have been sparked that clean, green fuels – such as solar, wind, hydro, fuel cells – are for the chop, with the threat that the current administration's commitment to policies on climate change facing reverse. Not necessarily so. There ...

Households and businesses face rising energy bills this winter as wholesale gas prices reverse more than three years of steady declines. This could result in headaches for both the big six suppliers and many smaller independents, for different reasons, yet create a unique opportunity for selected stock market-quoted operators, such as Good Energy (GOOD:AIM) and Telecom Plus (TEP). The ...

London's FTSE 100 follows Asian markets down on Monday, despite a slight recovery in oil prices, with the blue chip benchmark 67.9 points lower at 6,841.5 as anticipation builds ahead of tonight's first televised US Presidential debate. The market is in part weighed down by UK supermarkets, which head south as German discounter Aldi announces record sales and plans for a £300 million investment ...

The UK energy supply market remains in a state of flux having already undergone years of substantial change. This spans from the privatisations of the 1980s to years of mega-mergers that have swallowed up a host of regional suppliers. The industry has faced, arguably, its biggest shake-up more recently as a swathe of small, independent operators have attempted to lever their way in to a market ...

Investing with an ethical bent no longer means just avoiding so-called ‘vice’ stocks in the fossil fuels, tobacco, arms and alcohol sectors. The trend is now leaning towards to a more active approach through impact investing. The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), a leadership group of nearly 60 large-scale impact investors, reckons worldwide there is $60 billion in impact investment ...

Many companies make hay while the sun shines but when it comes to energy supply it’s the colder months when consumers tend to get the itch to switch. Smaller, independents have been nicking customers, and market share, off the Big Six, so ahead of the winter months is the right time to look at Good Energy (GOOD:AIM). The advantages it enjoys suggest substantial upside for the shares over the ...

Jiasen’s 94% price slump Chinese door maker Jiasen (JSI:AIM) has fallen by 94% in value to 5p since we said to avoid the stock (see Shares, 2 Oct ‘14) due to numerous risks hanging over the investment case. The latest setback is its chief financial officer resigning for ‘personal family reasons’ (20 Jul), one month after news about falling profit margins. (DC) Delays hit Nektan ...

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 ...

Many readers might think the UK telecoms and utilities space is nothing more than a collection of high-yielding corporate giants hamstrung by capped growth and strangling regulation. If so, you’re wrong. Yes, these sectors are massively dominated by the BT’s (BT.A), SSE’s (SEE) , Vodafone’s (VOD) and their ilk, and to call these industries exciting might be overstating things, but there ...

Troubled outsourcing business Serco (SRP) continues its run of bad luck, down 0.7% to 360.5p as it fails to keep the Docklands Light Railway management contract. It has run the shuttle service in London since 1997 but has now failed to snag the franchise for a third time. The activity represents 2% of its group revenues. It's acquisitions for the second day in a row for Xchanging (XCH) as the ...

Green investing does not have a good billing in the UK and barely features on the radars of institutional investors. This is not a matter of prejudice and two good reasons explain the indifference. First, there is only one company in the FTSE All-Share Alternative Energy sector and with a market value of £140 million industrial filtration expert Porvair (PRV) has absolutely no bearing on the ...

Favourable subsidies for renewable energy outlined in the Government’s £375 billion National Infrastructure Plan (NIP) 2013 (4 Dec) appear to clear the path for long-term investment in the sector. This should create good opportunities for investors in wind farms, solar parks, biomass and hydro-electric projects. A lower-than-expected subsidy for onshore wind might have prompted investors to ...

Highly regulated assets, secure cashflows, good earnings visibility and juicy dividend yields are the usual reasons why many investors find space in their portfolios for utility stocks, particularly during times of economic uncertainty. Despite their yield attractions, and the rotten income alternatives offered by many fixed-income options, both Electricity and Gas, Water and Multi-Utilities ...