US-based resource specialist Magnolia Petroleum (LON:MAGP) saw its shares collapse by 77.20% to 0.52p after it announced it would be de-listing from AIM. The firm’s management said that it was finding it increasingly difficult to raise money on the market despite the recovery of oil prices. Get the latest from Master Investor directly in your…
UK Consumer Price Inflation fell to 2.4% in April, it’s lowest level in over a year. The largest source of downward pressure came from air fares, as the Easter season was not included in April this year, while rises in motor fuel, recreation, and culture costs partially offset the fall. Get the latest from Master…
I was a bit surprised by a story in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph to the effect that the total assets falling to be distributed by the administrators of Beaufort Securities was of the order of £500 million to £850 million but that the fee charged by PwC for this would be of the order of £100…
At the last general election, I did not bother to vote since the notion of the Conservatives being upstaged in Kensington struck me as ridiculous. But, unbeknowst to me, the boundaries had been changed. So, Labour won by twenty votes – I was not alone in my idleness. The result is one Emma Jane Coad.…
Life as a retailer operating in the UK has been challenging in recent years. Consumer confidence has been negative since the start of 2016, with higher inflation causing household disposable incomes to decline in real terms. Shoppers have become increasingly price conscious, and this has created a growth opportunity for budget retailers. Alongside this, consumers…
Far-sighted investors are assessing how they can position themselves to capitalise on any opening-up of the North Korean economy. I’ve stumbled across this Main Market listed company that appears to be the closest thing to a UK-listed play on this opportunity… Donald Trump is scheduled to meet Kim Jong Un in a historic summit in…
Given what we have seen in stock markets in recent weeks, it was easy to pick the topic for this month’s charting article. Volatility has jumped, world markets fell heavily – is it the beginning of the end of the long trend upwards for shares? A recent history lesson Let’s go back to where this…
Given the fact that you can barely watch the news today without the “B” word rearing its head, I thought it could be timely to take a look at the fortunes of the pound versus its nearest currency neighbour, the euro. The market convention is actually to quote this the other way around to what…
One big question mark hangs over the markets right now: What effect will the normalisation of monetary policy – by which we mean the gradual withdrawal of quantitative easing (QE) and an increase in interest rates – have on the global financial system and the economy? Many commentators, not least our very own Jim Mellon,…
Emmanuel Macron and the Goblet of Fire French President Emmanuel Macron is a dynamic young wizard. But the fundamental reform of France may be beyond even his magical powers. One year in He established a centrist political movement out of nothing (La République En Marche or REM) and was elected Head of State on its ticket…
The performance of global stock markets thus far in 2018 can best be described as ‘volatile’. The S&P 500, FTSE 100 and various other major indices have seen their price levels experience a rollercoaster ride in recent months. There are a number of reasons for this. Tensions in Syria have increased in recent days, while…
It has been a strong year for BlackRock World Mining (LON:BRWM) with a NAV return of 24% in 2017. The performance has been driven by the pick-up in global economic growth, and sentiment towards the fund is finally starting to improve after a significant write-down in 2013 dented investor confidence. If the economic recovery continues…
Augmentum Fintech (LON:AUGM) is a new London-listed investment company that was created to profit from opportunities in the UK and European Fintech sector. It will concentrate on businesses with innovative technologies that have the power to change the way we conduct our financial affairs and will distribute 50% of the realised gains made each year. AUGM…
The best way to assess the performance of an active fund is to look at its risk-adjusted return, which measures how much value the manager has added per unit of risk. Over the ten years to the end of December 2017 the top investment trust using this metric was BlackRock Smaller Companies (LON:BRSC), which was…
The Brexit negotiations have entered a critical phase. Decisions made by both sides in the next three months will have long-term consequences. In a state of conflict, all sides become extreme. A modern English Civil War The classic schoolboy pseudo-history 1066 And All That asserted that, during the English Civil War, the Cavaliers were “Wrong…
The British political class is riven with dissent over what type of Brexit is most desirable. This is because, after two years of Brexit argy bargy, few Brits really understand the issues – and least of all in the Labour Party. A discourteous proposition Last week Monsieur Barnier, the EU Chief Negotiator, threw a document…
