London’s FTSE fell 30.5 points or 0.49% to 6,195.3 on Tuesday as fears of a resurgence of COVID-19 cases were reinforced by new lockdown measures, notably in the UK city of Leicester. Also weighing on sentiment was the news that the UK’s first quarter GDP reading has been revised lower. In corporate news, Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB) slipped 1.8% to £12.48 as the oil giant warned that it ...

Investors continued to see the bright side on Thursday morning as the FTSE 100 gained 0.35% in opening trade to 5,874.01, despite more bad economic news. The Bank of England has warned of the deepest recession on record as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and said the UK economy is set to shrink around 14% this year based on the lockdown being relaxed in June. Members of the Bank’s ...

Oil producer Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB) was meant to be the company that never disappoints when it comes to dividends. Sadly its decision to slash its payment by two thirds means other stocks effectively now have free rein to do the same. The drastic actions by companies to preserve cash have now seen 309 London-listed stocks either cut, suspend or delay dividends, including 41 in the FTSE ...

Shares in Holiday Inn owner InterContinental Hotels (IHG) jumped 4.4% this morning to £35.09 after it tapped into £600m of Bank of England funding and secured new lending arrangements with its banks. The extra money gives the hotel group, whose brands include Holiday Inn, InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Six Senses and Staybridge Suites, around $2bn in liquidity, comprised of $1.35bn cash on ...

UK were firmer at the open on Monday, taking their cue from positive grey market trading on Wall Street and strong Asian gains, after the Bank of Japan expanded its monetary stimulus again. The benchmark FTSE 100 rallied a fraction off 100 point, or 1.7%, to 5,851.95, while the mid cap FTSE 250 charged 2% higher at 15,996.93. Asia markets have got off to a positive start as a raft of ...

Fundsmith Equity (B41YBW7) 416p Gain to date: 1.2% Original entry point: Buy at 411p, 26 March 2020 Holders of Fundsmith Equity (B41YBW7) had the opportunity to digest the thoughts of manager Terry Smith on the recent market volatility as he put out his latest letter to investors.  The first quarter performance of the fund for 2020 shows it outperformed the MSCI World index by ...

Advertising giant WPP (WPP) and engineering company Smiths (SMIN) have become the latest FTSE 100 firms to axe their dividends, taking the total up to 13. WPP has suspended its 2019 final dividend and a £950m share buyback having cited a recent deterioration in demand, in a move which will save it £1.1bn in cash. Smiths meanwhile has not declared an interim dividend for the first half of ...

While a large part of the public has been panic buying amid the coronavirus pandemic, an even bigger percentage of investors have been doing the opposite. Panic selling has been rife across stock markets in recent weeks, leading the share prices of many companies to tumble dramatically. Some of the hardest hit had financial difficulties anyway but others, despite their strong balance ...

The FTSE 100 bounced strongly on Friday, rising 4.6% to 5,389 points following gains in Asian markets overnight and expectations of more stimulus actions from around the world to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Stocks which have been hardest hit over the last two weeks bounced back strongly with share prices in Flutter (FLTR), Whitbread (WTB) and Royal Dutch (RDSB) all up double digit ...

Asian markets were lower on Tuesday with tech stocks hit by Apple's warning that it would miss its sales guidance this quarter due to lower production and sales in China owing to the impact of the coronavirus. Although the UK market doesn't have a big weighting in tech stocks, the FTSE 100 index reflected the weak mood in Asia losing 0.9% to 7,363 led by financial and commodity ...

A lot of companies talk a good game when it comes to sustainability and climate change, but how many of them actually do what they say they’re going to do? We now have some idea. Research platform Tortoise Media has ranked all 100 companies in the FTSE 100 index against the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Called the ‘responsibility index’, it measures the gap between what ...

It has been a big morning for the hotel sector with takeovers, soaring share prices and fallout from the Hong Kong protests all featuring. Shares in luxury hotel operator Elegant Hotels (EHG:AIM) have soared 56.3% to 109.4p after it agreed an all cash 110p per share offer from Marriott International. Elegant Hotels operates upscale hotels in Barbados and St Lucia, and Marriott highlighted ...

London’s FTSE 100 traded down 23 points at 7,159.2 on the back of China reporting weaker than expected growth of 6% amid worries that the trade war with the US was hitting factory production. The blue chip CSI300 index fell by 1.4%. Meanwhile the domestically focused FTSE 250 index was up 65 points to 20,286.2 points, buoyed by the prospect of the breakthrough Brexit deal getting passed by ...

In a sign of where markets are heading, the FTSE 100 opened below the 7,200 mark as investors worry over a big escalation in the US/China trade war. For the first time since 1994, the United States has officially called China out as a currency manipulator. In response, China has accused the US of ‘deliberately destroying international order’. Investors around the world are clearly ...

Shares in Holiday Inn owner InterContinental Hotels (IHG) are up 1.5% at £47 despite operating profit falling 22.3% to $162m in the year ending 31 December 2018. The drop in operating profit has been blamed on a $108m jump in costs associated with InterContinental’s efficiency programme and a $112m higher in-year System Fund deficit. Investors may be forgiving of the lower profits on ...

Dividends take centre stage in early trade on Tuesday as banking giant HSBC (HSBA) and mining group BHP Billiton (BHP) maintain payouts to investors, while hotels operator Intercontinental Hotels (IHG) ups its own shareholder hand out by 10%. HSBC continues to demonstrate what a profitable core business it has as it increasingly concentrates on Asia, posting a near 16% rise in pre-tax profit ...

Holiday Inn owner InterContinental Hotels (IHG) is tapping into the $60bn luxury segment with the acquisition of Six Senses, a leading operator of luxury hotels, resorts and spas. Shares in InterContinental are up just 0.6% at £44.87 after it arguably paid a full price for Six Senses. InterContinental paid private equity firm Pegasus Capital Advisors $300m in cash for all of Six ...

UK stocks head higher in tune with European markets on Wednesday, the FTSE 100 adding 0.3% to 7,157 to close in on recent highs, although traders have one eye on the pound after the consumer price index dropped below 2% for the first time in a year. Leading the gainers is packaging firm DS Smith (SMDS) with shares up 4% to 349p following strong results from rival Smurfitt Kappa (SKG) which is ...

It is raining dividends in the UK with nearly £100bn worth of income payouts set to swell the coffers of investors in 2018. That’s according to the latest UK Dividend Monitor report constructed by shareholder support specialist Link Asset Services, which has raised its full year estimate by £1.1bn to £99.5bn for the current calendar year. Recent stock market volatility has been a major ...

The promise of a juicy $500m special dividend at Holiday Inn owner InterContinental Hotels (IHG) is not enough to stop the shares falling 5.4% to £39.87 as growth has slowed in the third quarter to 30 September. Revenue per available room (RevPAR) growth has declined from 3.7% in its second quarter to 2.7%. InterContinental’s biggest driver of profits and sales is the Americas region. The ...