Following Theresa May’s widely expected announcement that she would resign, the immediate reaction of currency markets appeared confused.
Having suffered declines over the past few days, the unsurprising announcement initially saw sterling rally against the euro and dollar. Those gains, however, soon waned, with sterling starting to trend down again at the time of writing at midday on 24 May.
In the second episode of our new video series, Inside Track, Diverse Income Trust’s Gervais Williams tackles our 30-second ‘why should I invest with you?’ challenge.
Separately, the fund manager outlines Brexit opportunities for UK share investors.
The UK stock market has a heavy international bias, with many companies listed in the country having little or no exposure to the UK economy in terms of revenue are listed on the London Stock Exchange. Of all companies listed on the FTSE 100, for example, over 70% of revenue is derived from abroad.
In the first episode, we have City of London’s Job Curtis in the Inside Track hot seat, taking on our 30-second ‘why should I invest with you?’ challenge.
Separately, Curtis also runs through his latest additions and reductions to the portfolio, as well as explaining how he is playing Brexit uncertainty.
Gold bullion saw an uptick in demand from private investors in the month of March against the uncertain Brexit backdrop, according to data from BullionVault.
The firm said its Gold Investor index, which measures sentiment based on trading among its 75,000 international and UK users, last month rose by 2.3 points to 54.5, its highest level in six months.
Since Christmas, the pound has strengthened against the dollar and other currencies. A pound was worth $1.27 in December, but it was worth $1.33 by the end of February – a rise of 4.5%.
Brexit uncertainty stifled the UK stockmarket last year, making it one of the poorest-performing markets around the world. The fortunes of individual funds were largely tied to one factor: whether their holdings were domestically orientated or export-focused.
Stockmarkets around the world enjoyed their strongest start to a year for three decades. The S&P 500 index rose 7.8% and 3% in January and February respectively, the best first two months of any year since 1991. That run was broken in the first week of March, as stockmarkets fell on disappointing economic news, particularly US jobs data, downward growth forecasts from the OECD, and the announcement that the European Central Bank feels the need to launch fresh stimulus.
It is no secret that UK companies are currently trading at historically cheap levels. Indeed, as one fund manager has pointed out, the last time UK listed shares were as cheap as they are now (measured in comparison to bonds), Britain was fighting in the First World War.
Annual house prices fell by 0.8% in the year to March, according to property website Rightmove.
The average asking price for a property was £302,002 in March, up 0.4% from the previous month, but down more than £2,000 from this time last year.