Faith Glasgow

Persistently low rates have left investors restlessly scouring the markets for income-producing holdings, reports Faith Glasgow.

The most popular funds sector also houses the most consistent underperformers, warns Faith Glasgow.

The absolute return sector is one of the newest and fastest-growing Investment Management Association fund categories, having expanded from 17 funds when it was set up in 2008 to 69 today. Of those, 13 have launched since the end of June 2010.

The past four years have been an agonising time in the Spanish property market. In the aftermath of the massive overdevelopment that went on in the first half of the decade, there are now around 700,000 empty newly built homes on the market – 400,000 of them in coastal areas.

Whatever your view of the impact of carbon emission levels on our misbehaving global climate, the UK government appears at first sight to be taking the drive to reduce the national carbon footprint pretty seriously – most significantly by penalising those companies and industries that produce the most CO2. 

What does the FSCS actually do? 

It was set up in 2001 to pay compensation to customers of financial firms that go bust or default and are unable to repay claims against them. 

The past five months have been eventful times for Alliance Trust, and the dust has not yet settled.

First the bad news – and it is pretty bad if you’re a parent of children yet to plough their furrow on further education. The cost of university, which for many parents is a key long-term savings goal, is set to soar at an unprecedented rate over the coming years for English students.  

Are you wondering where to channel your Isa this year? Perhaps you are contemplating a shift from the familiar terrain of unit trusts and open-ended investment companies to the uncharted territory of investment trusts and other closed-end investment companies?