If we took a straw poll of readers and asked which country has the world?s biggest sovereign wealth fund, the chances are Saudi Arabia and Singapore would come high up the list if not at the top.In fact, the largest is Norway?s Government Pension Fund Global which has a value of more than $1.6 trillion.When the country discovered large offshore oil fields at the end of the 1960s, the government de

For the second part of our annual survey, we asked fund managers if they had changed their view on any stocks this year, for better or for worse, and what lay behind their decisions.As with the winners and losers survey last week, the answers were often frank and once again we would like to thank everyone who took part.Thomas Moore - Aberdeen Equity Income Trust (AEI)THE STOCK THAT I CHANGED MY MI

Huge swathes of Europe, North America, Asia and Africa have endured boiling conditions this summer, with the majority of scientists pinning the blame for the planet's exceptional heat and rain, as well as wildfires in countries such as Greece and Canada, on human activity.Data from the EU-funded Copernicus Climate Change Service showed that the first three weeks of July were the warmest three-week

Over the last 15 years the electronics and electronic equipment space, home to some of the UK market's highest-quality engineering and capital goods firms, is the best performing sector in the FTSE 350 with an 11.7% compound annual return.The industrial engineering sector is not too far behind with its own annualised return of 9.7%. For comparison, the FTSE All-Share's annualised return over the s

Making the decision to click the buy button and invest your hard-earned cash in a stock is an important step in an investment journey and often the most difficult part.Knowing your money is at risk inevitably makes it tricky to commit and any reticence could mean you miss exciting opportunities.To help you get over this hurdle we are going to look in detail at when you should consider buying a sto

A high price can stop investors from buying a particular stock, simply because they cannot afford it. Not everyone has the $1,000+ which it costs to buy a single share in many US-listed companies. It's a long-standing frustration but slowly we are seeing solutions to the problem.Amazon has joined the likes of Alphabet, Apple and Tesla in doing a 'stock split'. Each existing Amazon share will be re

While average wages may have risen 3.6% last year in nominal terms, the rate of inflation as we exited 2021 was 5.4% and last month it accelerated to 5.5% so in real terms workers are actually less well off now than they were a year ago.To make matters worse, the Bank of England has forecast inflation will top 7% in April before it starts to come down again. A large part of the increase is due to

UK stocks experience their worst one-day fall in more than 12 months on Monday as global markets swooned due to sustained weakness in US technology stocks with the Nasdaq 100 collapsing by 4% as sellers began to exhibit signs of panic.Asian trading saw a volatile session with Japan's Nikkei 225 and China's Shanghai Composite up slightly, but the EuroStoxx 50 index of leading European companies she

UK stocks fell sharply at the start of the week as global markets swooned following weakness in US stocks on Friday.Asian trading saw a volatile session with Japan's Nikkei 225 closing 0.25% higher and China's Shanghai Composite up slightly, but the EuroStoxx 50 index of leading European companies shed 2% as tech stocks faced heavy selling.Investors are also bracing themselves ahead of an update f

UK and European stocks started the week on a down note following weakness in US stocks on Friday, although futures prices indicated a bounce of close to 1% for the benchmark S&P 500 at the open.Asian trading saw a volatile session with Japan's Nikkei 225 closing 0.25% higher and China's SE Composite up slightly. Oil prices continued their rise with Brent Crude gaining 0.5% to $87.70 per barrel.Inv

Austria imposing a full lockdown and Germany possibly following suit is not what the markets want to hear. Despite the ongoing rollout of Covid vaccinations, this pandemic is still raging on, and with it comes more disruption to consumers, businesses and the flow of goods.We've just seen what happens when companies trading on high earnings multiples disappoint the market - their share prices take

Both the FTSE 100 index of leading shares and the mid-cap FTSE 250 Index ended Wednesday's trading session in negative territory as concerns regarding UK inflationary pressures mounted.The CPI (consumer price index) rose to a near 10 year high in October of 4.2% from 3.1% in September and is likely to increase further during the rest of the year.Weakness in US equity markets also weighed as invest

London's major stocks opened modestly lower as the inflation genie continues to work its way out of the bottle, although banks defied the gravitational pull.At 9am, the benchmark FTSE 100 was 0.13% down at 7,317.61 after UK inflation rose to its highest in almost a decade. But there was plenty of demand for bank stocks, seen as benefitting from an increasingly likely rise in interest rates, with L

On an invested sum of £210,000, the return over two years on my SIPP and stocks and shares ISA active retirement portfolio of around 30 shares is 12.4% excluding dividend payments.I have been documenting my investing experience in Shares since August 2020 and these articles have provided readers with an insight into how I try to make money from the markets and manage my investments.SAFETY-FIRST A

City of London Investment Trust (CTY) has been a popular choice for investors over the years, but a period of underperformance versus the UK Equity Income investment trust sector average on a three and five-year basis is a worry.Typically investing in FTSE 100 companies, City of London has been a hit with certain types of investors, particularly those approaching retirement or already in it. The

We're pleased to welcome back Malcolm from Edinburgh who is sharing his experience as someone in retirement taking charge of their investments for the first time. This is part five of the series click to read parts one, two, three and four. In managing my retirement portfolio of 30 shares, currently divided between 12 in the FTSE 100, 13 in FTSE 250 companies and five from the FTSE AIM 100 index,

The FTSE 100 index finished the day breaking through the 7200 level to close 59 points or 0.8% higher at 7,220 points, taking it above its pre-Covid high.The gains were helped by a softer than expected reading in US core CPI numbers, meaning American inflation may be peaking. The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index responded positively to the CPI data, trading 0.5% higher, whilst the Nasdaq Composi

The FTSE 100 Index was struggling for direction in lunchtime trading. At midday. the index was trading 0.5% higher at 7,196.53. The performance of the FTSE 250 Index mirrored this lackadaisical performance recording a midday rise of 0.2% at 23,622.60.Shares in Engineering company Spirax-Sarco (SPX) were trading over 3.5% higher at midday making it the top FTSE 100 index performer.The thermal energ

Shares in FTSE 100 thermal energy management and pumps firm Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) topped the index, trading close to record highs up 3.8% to £157 as the company booked a 41% rise in first-half profit, boosted in part by vaccine-related demand.Over the last 10 years Spirax has delivered a total return of 873%.Pre-tax profit for the six months through June increased to £150 million, up fr

UK stocks advanced as the first half reporting season continued to show companies meeting or beating expectations in general.By 8.30am the benchmark FTSE 100 index was up 24 points or 0.3% to 7,185 points, not quite an intraday high but very close, driven by gains in financial and industrial stocks.The FTSE 250 mid-cap index hit yet another record high, albeit with a small gain of 22 points to 23,