The FTSE 100 gave up any gains by lunchtime on Friday to trade 0.8% lower at 5,776.34. Not helping sentiment was news that London has been placed on a UK Covid watchlist amid a surge in infections. European markets were also weak with the US futures markets implying there will be a poor start on Wall Street later. Closer to home there was renewed weakness for those businesses at the sharp ...

The rotation out of ‘mega-tech’ and high-flying biotech stocks into cheap, unloved ‘value’ stocks seems to be gathering momentum not just in the US but also in the UK market. On Tuesday shares in Royal Mail (RMG) leapt 25% after the firm raised its full year revenue guidance, albeit warning at the same time it would make a ‘material’ loss this year. Today the shares are up ...

So far, this year has been a washout for advisers and investment banks involved in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), as the Covid pandemic has forced firms to cut back on all non-essential spending and conserve cash. However, there are rumblings that deals could come back with a vengeance in the second-half period thanks to large amounts of cash on hand at private equity firms and cheap ...

Shares in Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza hotels-owner InterContinental Hotels (IHG) jumped 6.75% to £42.71 on signs that it could be making a tentative recovery. The market already knew its numbers for the six months to 30 June were going to be bad, and they were with revenue down 52% to $488 million, operating profit tumbling 82% to $74 million and adjusted earnings per share falling 90% to ...

European stock markets were higher across the board on Tuesday on speculation in Washington that President Trump could introduce a capital gains tax cut to create jobs, and signs that some of the US states hit hardest by the coronavirus such as California and Texas were seeing fewer hospitalisations. UK stocks even shrugged off the latest employment data which showed the number of people in ...

UK stocks eased on Monday ahead of the latest round of talks with the European Union regarding Britain’s post-Brexit trading relationship with the bloc. Early confidence that a deal could be reached quickly has ebbed, with the two sides seemingly as far apart as ever. Sterling was steady against the US dollar at $1.2560 while Brent crude futures fell for a third session to $42.75 and gold ...

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 ...