There was good and bad news for infrastructure investors over the past week, depending on where in the sector they invested. On the plus side, an infrastructure boom could be about to hit the UK after the government gave the green light to build the £106bn High Speed 2 (HS2) rail project, spelling good news for stocks in the space. But for those investing in renewable energy, another area ...

A report from the Link Group showed that UK dividends increased by 10.7% in 2019 to hit a record £110.5bn. That represents a payout of £1.02 for every £20 invested in the UK stock market. However, excluding special dividends, which recorded their second highest contribution since 2014, and currency benefits from a weak pound, the underlying growth rate was a muted 0.8%, the lowest since ...

It is always fascinating to get insight into fund managers’ views on their stock picking decisions and so we’ve spoken to range of managers about their best and worst calls in 2019. The managers in this article discuss a range of stocks on both the UK market and ones listed overseas. WILL JAMES Deputy head of European Equities at Aberdeen Standard Investments MEDIOBANCA ...

London’s FTSE 100 added a further 117 points to trade at 7,470.5 on Monday, building on Friday’s impressive rally thanks to some of the bigger constituents taking a small step forward including banks, miners and tobacco stocks. Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct (SPD) sprinted 13.3% higher to 407.8p after the retailer reported a 58% rise in first half underlying pre-tax profit to £101.8m and ...

Shares in construction firm Balfour Beatty (BBY) moved 4.5% higher to 240.8p as it guided for full year profit and net cash ahead of expectations. This looks an impressive achievement given the construction backdrop in the UK, which remains a key market for the business. The IHS Markit/Cips UK construction purchasing managers’ index came in at 45.3 in November, compared to 44.2 in ...

It is always fascinating to get insight into fund managers’ views on their stock picking decisions and so we’ve spoken to range of managers about their best and worst calls in 2019. The managers in this article discuss a range of stocks on both the UK market and ones listed overseas. WILL JAMES Deputy head of European Equities at Aberdeen Standard Investments MEDIOBANCA ...

Outsourcing business Kier (KIE) gains 1.4% to 88.9p on a trading update which suggests things aren’t getting any worse for the ailing business. The news comes ahead of an AGM which could see the company come under fire for its pay policy. Working capital, net debt and trading are all in line and the company is on course to cut 1,200 jobs in the current financial year and achieve £55m of ...

London’s FTSE 100 firmed 18.3 points to 7,311 on Friday as investors latched onto White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow’s comment that current US/China negotiations are ‘very constructive’. This was enough to drive stock markets up across the UK, mainland Europe and most of Asia. Miners Rio Tinto (RIO), Glencore (GLEN) and Anglo American (AAL) led the charge on the FTSE, supported ...

The recent backtracking by emerging markets-focused bank Standard Chartered (STAN) on executive pay shows the impact shareholder pressure can have on this issue and puts the spotlight on other companies which have faced significant pay revolts. Nearly 40% of the shareholder base failed to back the remuneration policy at Standard Chartered at its annual investor meeting in May. This followed a ...

The pressure on construction firm Kier (KIE) continues to mount amid reports that its lenders are looking to offload the company’s debt to hedge funds. The news sent the shares down 7% to 109p in early trade on Monday. A year ago the stock was valued at more than 900p. The Sunday Telegraph reported at the weekend that banks are marketing the borrowings as low as 70p in the pound ...

Having opened lower, London’s FTSE 100 edged 15.1 points higher to 7,329.1 on Thursday as tension mounted ahead of the Bank of England’s latest interest rate decision and after last night’s rate cut by the US Federal Reserve left investors confused. While the cut was widely expected, the market doesn’t know what to make of split views in the Fed as policymakers in the committee failed to ...

Invest in what you know is the golden rule for first time investors. This advice has stood the test of time and is a great way for people to get to know what investing is all about. Fortunately, there are many companies on the FTSE 350 which are household names. But when you get more comfortable with investing and how the stock markets generally work, there’s a whole host of companies less ...

If you are new to stock market investing you may still have heard of the FTSE 100. It frequently appears on TV news bulletins and in the papers, its relative direction up or down giving viewers/readers a steer as to how the UK economy is going and how optimistic, or not, investors feel about the nation’s prospects. By contrast, the FTSE 350 the has a very low profile and seldom gets a mention ...

UK markets were weaker on Thursday with the FTSE 100 down 0.5% to 7,545 despite a much-anticipated cut in US interest rates overnight. The major US stock indices lost more than 1% after the chairman of the US Federal Reserve said that the 0.25% rate cut did not mark the beginning of a lengthy easing cycle. The Hong Kong central bank cut rates by 0.25% in line with the Federal ...

A disappointing trading update from building materials firm SIG (SHI) on 5 July was the latest bit of bad news from the UK construction sector. It follows a series of negative data points and gloomy commentary from construction companies. In this article we look at some of the larger businesses in the construction and building materials space and consider how diversified they are ...

The FTSE 100 is off to a steady start in early trading, up 0.2% to 7,419.26 buoyed by oil stocks. Due to concerns over oil supply disruptions thanks to the increasingly tense standoff between the US and Iran, two of the world’s biggest oil exporters, prices of the most-traded futures in crude oil have been pushed higher. That spells good news for the likes of Shell (RDSB) and BP ...

We often talk about incoming chief executives throwing the kitchen sink at company’s accounts when they come in – i.e. getting all the bad news out there in one go – well Kier’s (KIE) Andrew Davies looks like he’s thrown the whole kitchen at it. The shares are down 10% to 118p as he announces the suspension of dividends, 1,200 job cuts and the sale of non-core businesses, including ...

UK investors begin the week with takeover talk to digest after defence contractor Babcock (BAB) admits it turned down approaches of a tie-up from outsourcing peer Serco (SRP). There is also a strategy overhaul reported by troubled construction firm Kier (KIE) and a profit warning from German airline Lufthansa to mull, the latter hurting UK listed airlines that have been struggling with rising ...

The latest quarterly shuffling of the deck in the FTSE 100 list of blue-chip companies and the FTSE 250 index of mid-cap stocks sees a significant amount of change. To qualify for inclusion in the FTSE 100 index a stock needs to meet certain liquidity requirements and have a sufficiently large market capitalisation to rank in the top 100 companies. Stocks which fail to meet these criteria ...

Increasingly accident-prone outsourcing firm Kier (KIE) drops 38% to 172.3p as it warns on profit, citing ongoing volume pressures within its highways, utilities and housing maintenance businesses. The company has endured a torrid 12 months, punctuated by the departure of its CEO in the wake of a botched rights issue and its market value is now around a tenth of what it was five years ...