Category: Market news

Although markets have not succumbed to the downward pressure the continuing unrest in Ukraine is generating, they are not making much positive progress either. Given that Asian markets got off to a good start this week, this is a little disappointing. Still, company news is thin on the ground and even last week’s budget statement did not spark much interest, despite the radical overhaul of the pensions industry.

Market Comment 25th March 2014

Despite a lift for markets, arguably helped along here in the UK by the Vodafone demerger, shares have become somewhat lacklustre of late. The situation in the Ukraine is undoubtedly weighing on sentiment, but perhaps the recent gentle slide in markets owes more to an absence of any real stimulus.

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Market Comment 11th March 2014

Markets have been generally trending upwards, despite a modest upset in Asian markets. Our own FTSE 100 Share Index is finishing February within a whisker of the previous all time high, reached more than fourteen years ago. Part of the reason behind the recent strength has been the jump in Vodafone’s share price. It is worth looking at what has been going on in this giant telecommunications business.

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Market Comment 25th February 2014

Two weeks ago British Gas was in the news for not the best of reasons. This week they return to the spotlight, again under circumstances they would wish had not taken place. The Energy Secretary clearly thinks that they and other energy giants are making too much money at the expense of the poor consumer. Gas and electricity companies seem to have taken over the mantle of those businesses we love to hate from the banks…

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Market Comment 11th February 2014

Markets have been having a trickier time of late, with our own FTSE 100 Index shedding much of the ground made at the end of last year and the beginning of this, while Wall Street has been behaving in a similarly unsettled fashion. Given an improving economic picture, particularly on the employment front, it is worrying that investors have turned nervous, but markets never do move in a straight line.

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Market Comment 29th January 2014

With Christmas and the New Year intervening, it has been some time since last I shared my thoughts on the state of markets. Just before Christmas I was lamenting the lack of a Santa rally – that seasonal push for shares that more often than not takes markets higher. As it happens, markets did generate some momentum as the year drew to a close. December recorded a 1.5% gain overall – less than a number of other markets, but sufficient to bring 2013’s rise to over 14%.

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Market Comment 14th January 2014

Clearly I spoke too soon when I referred to the positive effect that Christmas can have on shares. Markets have been somewhat subdued since children started opening their advent calendars, although not every day is a down day. Last week did in fact see the major markets shed between 1.5% and 2% – not a massive amount, but equally not what we have come to expect in the run up to Christmas. Nervousness clearly abounds in investment circles.

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 Market Comment 17th December 2013

Our stock market recently reacted in a manner that many would have believed was rather perverse to confirmation that our economic situation is improving. The FTSE 100 Share Index shed 100 points on the news that the recovery was now firmly bedded down. It was the Governor of the Bank of England who made the claim when issuing the Bank’s latest quarterly inflation report. Shares fell because investors feared interest rates might soon be going up…

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Market Comment 20th November 2013

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Market comment 5th November 2013

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Market Comment 1st October 2013