UK stocks started the week on the front foot with the FTSE 100 index gaining 0.8% to 7108.53 in early trading led by energy companies as oil prices continued their recent surge. Shares in BP (BP.) gained 2.2% to 327p and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB) added 2.8% to £15.72.Brent crude traded 62 cents firmer at $78.71 per barrel, its highest level in over a year, as rising demand around the world in...

Stocks around the world took something of a pause today after a heavy sell-off yesterday, though the FTSE remains volatile, with markets concerned over a second wave of coronavirus infections.US markets all closed over 5% lower last night, with the Dow Jones tumbling 6.9%, as pockets of the country battle with a rapidly rising number of cases again, something which appears to be happening in...

The FTSE 100 is struggling for direction after yesterday's gains, down 1.57 points at 7,176.32.There's still not a huge amount of corporate news out there but a profit warning from Next (NXT) certainly gets the market's attention.Shares in the retailer fall 12.2% to £41.86 as it reduces profit guidance for the year to January 2017 from the previous range of£785m to £825m down to £792m...

Marcus Hanke has walked away from the CEO post at geo-location technology provider 1Spatial (SPA:AIM) after a six year-plus run in the top job. Or perhaps he was pushed. Either way, it comes as no surprise after what can only really be described as a dismal tenure in both operating and share price terms.Investors may have missed the announcement since it was posted in the dead zone between...

The words 1Spatial (SPA:AIM), profit warning and share price collapse, have an uncanny habit of appearing together, and here they come again today. The stock is down 32% today at 1.88p, valuing the geo-location technology provider at £13.7m. That's less than half what it was three months ago, two-thirds below the levels of February and an appalling 82% down since January 2014.The latest blow...

London's blue chip benchmark opens marginally lower, down 0.2% at 7,003, in a thinly-traded session which sees less than £100,000 worth of trades in some FTSE 250 stocks during early deals.Key corporate updates include Lloyds Banking Group's (LLOY) £1.9bn acquisition of credit card outfit MBNA and a share buyback programme launched by mid cap Paysafe (PAYS) to stave off short-sellers. In...

London shares lose early gains to drift lower as investor optimism is quickly swept aside despite a fairly robust showing on Wall Street overnight. The FTSE 100 index slips around 23 points to 6,328, matching the prevailing mood on Europe's main markets on Tuesday, although UK midcaps perform better. The FTSE 250 is up close on 30 points at 16,945, albeit a fractional gain.In corporate news,...

Geo-spatial technology company 1Spatial (SPA:AIM) runs the risk of destroying shareholder value as it attempts to reverse an operating performance that fails to live up to the hype. Some analysts believe the company's latest acquisition, the surprise £2 million deal to buy serial underperfomer Enables IT (EIT:AIM), makes little strategic sense and could cost shareholders in the...

The stock market's smallest and riskiest companies have always held fascination for private investors. On the premise that 'elephants don't gallop, but fleas leap,' to borrow Jim Slater's often quoted phrase, it's easier for a tiny company to double its size, and investor's money, than for a big one. Let's face it, a blue chip company worth £1 billion will find it much harder to double or...

Irish charmer Paddy Power (PAP) falls 4.1% to 56.59p as long-standing chief executive Patrick Kennedy announces his plan to step down by next April. David Jennings, analyst at stockbroker Davy, comments: 'Given the group's very impressive track record under his tenure, this is likely to lead to a period of uncertainty for investors with questions in relation to succession and the group's...

It's been said in the past that 1Spatial (SPA:AIM) was too early to the Big Data space. It struggled simply because many customers and potential clients assumed the theme was for the future, not the present. But this seems to be changing and today's confirmation of in-line results for the year to January 2014 underscores the rapid growth potentially capable by this £44 million...

FTSE 250 food ingredients group Tate & Lyle (TATE) rises 3.1% to 690.25p, continuing gains from Thursday amid rumours that Bermuda-based food processing play Bunge is mulling a £3.9 billion or 850p-a-share cash bid and may not be the only interested party given recent share price weakness. Tate & Lyle's profits have been hit by a more competitive market for higher margin SPLENDA Sucralose...

British manufacturing has enjoyed its fastest growth spurt in more than two years, according to new figures. The Markit/CIPS PMI index jumped to 52.5 in June from an upwardly revised 51.5 in May. This strong performance comes on the eve of Shares' annual review of the best quoted companies in Britain. Our team of journalists will travel the country over the coming weeks, meeting small, medium...

There is nothing wrong with tracking an index and Shares is a strong advocate of using exchange-traded funds to provide broad brush exposure to certain asset classes or geographies. Nor are we shy of using funds where appropriate, especially if the manager has a great record or the portfolio gives an investor a chance to play a theme or country which would otherwise be difficult or expensive...

'Big data' is everywhere these days. Consultants, analysts and journalists are churning out seemingly endless reams of reports, analyses and column inches flagging the explosion of information that our digital world is spewing out. Whether it's retailers monitoring the personal shopping habits of millions of customers in a flash or public health officials proposing grand schemes to map the DNA...

On a quiet day for corporate news, the market is struggling to find direction, having lost all of its gains enjoyed in early trading. Engineers and industrials are among the few large cap risers including a 1.6% gain in Meggitt (MGGT) to 530.5p.Equity markets may be near 13-year highs despite yesterday?s correction but liquidity remains constrained in the lower reaches of the market with Close...