Prices and Markets

BlackRock Throgmorton Trust – Throg’s shorts shine – With a decision on Brexit looming and US rates climbing, many investors appear to have adopted a more defensive stance. Dan Whitestone, manager of BlackRock Throgmorton Trust (THRG), has reduced the portfolio’s net exposure to markets to well below 100%, taking profits on some positions. Otherwise, Dan’s focus remains on the long-term drivers of growth. His ability to short (taking a negative exposure to) companies with unsound business models gives him another way of...

SIP (Systematic Investment Plan) is a way people invest in mutual funds. SIPs allow the investors to make regular investments in any mutual fund. This ensures that there are regularity and discipline in the savings. When NAV (Net Asset Value) gets higher, the investor will get fewer units. When the NAV gets lower, the investor is likely to get a greater number of units. Over time this gets evened out. ULIP (Unit Linked Insurance Plan) is a sort of financial...

One of the ways in which we can monitor the changes in an economy and the extent to which these changes might affect other economies is through the careful analysis of commodities. Commodities range from oil to corn, gas to coffee to silver and gold (and formerly even onions!) A commodity is used to measure the impact of events on a nation’s economy as the commodity has a fixed value that can be used to benchmark. However, events occur worldwide that...

QuotedData’s investment companies roundup – December 2018 is our latest roundup of news; price, NAV and discount movements; flows in and out of the sector and report on full year dividends announced over the month of November 2018. Kindly sponsored by Baillie Gifford. Read more Extract from ‘winners and losers’ The Californian wildfires took their toll on CatCo Reinsurance as it warned that these could impact on its NAV materially. Subsequent to the month end, we found out that the company’s manager was under...

QuotedData’s economic roundup – December 2018 is a collation of recent insights on markets and economies taken from the comments made by chairmen and investment managers of investment companies – have a read and make your own minds up. Please remember that nothing in this note is designed to encourage you to buy or sell any of the companies mentioned. Kindly sponsored by Polar Capital. Read more Roundup Brexit rumbled on and the Democrats won control of the House of Representatives...

The Indian stock market slid in September, extending its run of losses in 2018, and has seesawed since. Higher oil prices fed through into inflation concerns; rising interest rates; a fall in the exchange rate between the Indian rupee and other key currencies such as the US dollar; and what appears to have been, a liquidity squeeze (where some companies found it hard to borrow money).... Read more A sharp fall in the oil price since mid-October may now be...

Mark Gordon-James, manager of Aberdeen Frontier Markets (AFMC), has made a material personalinvestment in the trust, and therefore has shared in the pain experienced by AFMC’s shareholders as the fund has underperformed a falling benchmark index. He is, however, convinced of the fundamental attractions of the stocks in AFMC’s portfolio and believes that these will, in time, be reflected in AFMC’s NAV returns. AFMC : Aberdeen Frontier Markets – Incentivised to perform The board has introduced a performance-driven exit opportunity (see...

2017 was a particularly interesting year in the global energy markets as crude oil declined from around $55 per barrel in January to around $43 per barrel in June before rising again to end the year around $65 per barrel. OPEC's move to cut oil production levels as a proactive move to end the 3-year supply glut in oil started bearing fruits in 2017 and the bullish trend is building up momentum to continue in 2018.Crude oil is already up...

#IGCommodityChat: what is the future of gold? IG is presenting ‘IG CommodityChat’ – a series of live discussions focused on trends in commodity marketThe first chat looked at what the future might be for the goldmarket (this took place on 22nd November)Presenter Sara Walker was joined by Simon Popple, director of Brookville Capital, and Ross Norman, CEOof Sharps Pixley. The gold mining industry has becoming increasingly constrained by the scarcity of the precious metal. The difficulty in finding gold has caused...