Take a bespoke approach to your retirement plans August 12, 2010 WHETHER it is the shift from final salary to defined contribution pension schemes or the growing disillusionment in the financial sector and the costs of traditional pensions, we are all choosing to take more control over our retirement planning. And rather than choosing a one-size-fits-all stakeholder pension, investors are increasingly opting for the made-to-measure self-invested [...]
PERSONAL FINANCE NEWS August 12, 2010 BEWARE PHONE CALL SCAM HM Revenue & Customs has issued a warning to taxpayers after reports that thieves were making phone calls pretending to be the taxman. According to reports, fraudsters say that you are due a tax rebate and ask for your bank details over the phone. They then try to gain access to [...]
Learning lessons from BP’s mistakes August 11, 2010 AND relax. At long last the great BP oil spill disaster of 2010 appears to be over. Black stuff is no longer leaking into the Gulf of Mexico, killing everything in its path. Brown stuff is no longer being power-hosed at Tony Hayward, the hapless CEO whose poor media performances enraged Americans and helped halve [...]
UK stocks sag after gloomy news from Bank of England August 11, 2010 BRITAIN’S top share index fell sharply to a three-week low closing yesterday, with banks and commodity stocks leading a broad-based sell-off after US and UK central banks voiced concerns over the economic recovery. Technology firm Smiths Group, however, topped the list of a handful of gainers, up 3.9 per cent as traders cited break-up hopes [...]
US wipes out gains on economic fears August 11, 2010 US stocks erased the year’s increases in the broadest sell-off in a month-and-a-half yesterday, as fears of sustained global economic stagnation caused investors to flee to safer assets. All three major indexes posted their worst percentage drop since 16 July following the Federal Reserve’s bleaker assessment of the economy on Tuesday. The Dow Jones industrial [...]
Pressures are building for a stronger renminbi August 11, 2010 AT THE start of this year, China was considered the only hope for global growth. But, for investors who wanted to get a slice of the pie and piled into the stock market, it has been a frustrating time. The Shanghai Composite Index is one of the worst-performing global stocks markets, having lost nearly a [...]
LISTED PRODUCT NEWS August 11, 2010 ETFS BENEFIT FROM WHEAT SURGE The well-publicised jump in wheat prices in recent days has not escaped the notice of ETF investors. According to ETF Securities, its global agri-business fund rallied 7 per cent last week, topping its ETFX platform. Returns from its agriculture fund actually beat its gold fund, which returned 5 per cent [...]
THE TIPSTER August 11, 2010 PRUDENTIAL shares have been trading in a range between 600p and 500p for the past six months. However, after languishing around the 500p mark, the stock has risen more than 15 per cent in the past three weeks to highs of 603.5p in anticipation of a positive first-half trading report today. Shares fell away slightly [...]
Jitters ahead of Bank’s Inflation Report as miners, banks and energy shares lose August 10, 2010 BRITAIN’S top shares were lower yesterday as investors nervously awaited the outcome of the Bank of England’s quarterly Inflation Report due today and commodity shares were hit by demand concerns following weak Chinese data. At the close, the FTSE 100 index was down 34.11 points, or 0.6 per cent, at 5,376.41, having ended at its [...]
Fed announcement helps curtail Wall Street losses August 10, 2010 US stocks fell yesterday but closed off their lows after the Federal Reserve said it would take new steps to counter a weak recovery. The Dow, which was down about 100 points before the Fed’s announcement, briefly turned positive, though buying interest waned on the Fed’s more pessimistic assessment of the economy. The Dow Jones [...]
