More than half of savers are seeing the value of their cash eroded by inflation because they are too scared to invest. Research from Scottish Friendly suggests savers are suffering from ‘investophobia’, avoiding putting their money in the stock market for fear of losing any.
Some 53 per cent of 2,000 savers surveyed say they would not consider investing in stocks and shares, with 49 per cent citing fear of potential losses as the main thing holding them back.
If leading stock markets maintain an upwards trajectory through the rest of 2018, the Association of Investment Companies’ 10-year performance tables could witness some significant changes.
Tech-focused trusts remained among investors’ favourites in June with Scottish Mortgage the most-purchased investment trust in the month, according to data from Interactive Investor.
When it comes to picking the best-performing shares, women outperform their male counterparts by 1.8 per cent a year and beat the FTSE 100 index returns by 2 per cent, according to a new study.
The study analysed the investment returns of 2,800 Barclays Smart Investor customers over a three-year period. It was carried out by professor Neil Stewart at Warwick Business School, who found that annual returns on investments for men are only 0.14 per cent above the performance of the FTSE 100 in comparison.
Are investors in emerging markets in for a nasty shock? The omens do not look good. Emerging market currencies are in the throes of the worst sell-off since 2015; the rising oil price and a resurgent dollar are strong headwinds against growth; Argentina’s right-wing reformist government is seeking a credit line from the International Monetary Fund (barely a year after selling global investors a 100-year bond that was more than three times oversubscribed); and the continuing threat of a US/China trade war hangs over the Asia Pacific region.
Stock markets can be perverse. Having been braced for the fallout from the US administration’s decision to exit the Iran nuclear deal and impose severe sanctions, the S&P 500 index has surprised everyone by surging ahead. In fact, while the market plummeted during president Trump’s speech announcing the move, it finished the session higher.
The board of the £132 million Invesco Perpetual Enhanced Income trust has received attractive proposals from a number of companies keen to take over as investment manager from Invesco Perpetual, which resigned at the end of April over a disagreement about its charges.
Emerging markets have come under heavy selling pressure since the start of May. Sparked by a strong US dollar, international investors have been rotating out of emerging market equities, bonds and currencies.
Certain countries have suffered more than others. Argentina and Turkey saw their currencies hit the hardest, prompting the former to raise interest rates to 40 per cent to try and stem the tide.
Global dividend payments reached a record high in the first quarter of 2018 , but which individual shares paid the most?
