Stock prices in London, Paris and Frankfurt opened mostly in the green on Wednesday, amid a slew of purchasing managers indices data, as investors await the US ADP report.'Today, investors will watch the US ADP report, and PMI, ISM numbers from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean,' said Swissquote's Ipek Ozkardeskaya. 'While the European investors could brush off bad news on expectation that the...

The number of companies on London's AIM market worth more than £1 billion has hit a nine-year low. A mere six stocks were worth more than £1 billion at the end of November 2024 compared with 30 at the end of 2021.From those 30 companies and excluding those still worth more than £1 billion, seven have disappeared through takeovers, three have moved to the Main Market, and the rest have...

M&G chair buys sharesBreedon chair ups stakeInvestec director sells sharesEdward Braham, chair of asset manager M&G (MNG), bought 24,600 shares at 204p for a total value of £50,174 on 20 June.A person closely associated ? Isabel Braham - also bought 14,800 shares at 204p for a total value of £30,192 on the same day.These move comes after the asset manager launched a £150 million bond tender...

Breedon purchase related to non-exec chairmanSofcat sale related to current chief executiveLight Science Technologies director buys sharesA PCA or person closely associated to Amit Bhatia, non-executive chair of construction materials giant Breedon (BREE:AIM), bought 1.1 million shares at 383p for a total value of £4,210,250 on 10 May.The purchase was made through Abicad Holding Limited,...

Investors seeking to position portfolios for a rally in small and mid cap stocks should buy BlackRock Throgmorton Trust (THRG), a fund with a strong long-run performance record trading at a 7.2% discount to net asset value (NAV), wider than the 4.7% 12-month average.The sell-off in quality growth stocks caused by rising interest rates has been a headwind for the portfolio, but Shares sees...

Investing in certain AIM stocks to obtain inheritance tax relief is a popular strategy, yet the rules can be complicated.Given that two of AIM's biggest stocks are poised to leave the junior market - Emis (EMIS:AIM) in a takeover and Breedon (BREE:AIM) which wants to move to London's Main Market - investors might be asking how the rules work if you switch into a different qualifying AIM...

Construction materials outfit Breedon (BREE:AIM) helped stem a tough recent run for its share price with a strong set of annual results which were accompanied by a robust outlook and plans for US expansion.Breedon is the UK's leading aggregates play. Aggregate is a term given to material frequently used in construction as a means of stabilising and reinforcement and includes items like sand,...

Despite healthy double-digit gains in 2021, driven by successful vaccination rollouts and recovering economies, major stock markets around the world appear to have stalled since early May.London's FTSE 100, the Standard and Poors 500, Japan's Nikkei 225 the Nasdaq 100 indices have failed so far to push on from recent highs.The exception is emerging markets with Brazil's Bovespa index up 6%,...

Construction materials business Breedon (BREE:AIM) gained 3.8% to 76.8p as it reported a strong recovery in demand post-lockdown.Breedon is the UK's leading aggregates play. Aggregate is a term given to material frequently used in construction as a means of stabilising and reinforcement and includes items like sand, gravel and concrete.The company reinstated guidance and said it expected...

Amid the current environment of fear created by the coronavirus outbreak there was a rare piece of positive news on Wednesday as construction materials firm Breedon (BREE:AIM) announced plans to introduce its first dividend in 2021.This news, which helped drive the shares 5.9% higher to 92p, accompanied a strong set of 2019 results with pre-tax profit up 18% to £94.6m on revenue up 8%.Breedon...

London's FTSE 100 rallied 84 points to 6,044.21 on Wednesday as the Bank of England cut interest rates by 0.5%, returning the cost of borrowing to a record low of 0.25% with the coronavirus continuing to rock confidence.Investors will be looking for further stimulus when new chancellor Rishi Sunak delivers the first annual budget of the Boris Johnson era later today.In corporate news,...

The markets have started the New Year in a bullish manner with a repeat of the same trend seen in 2017: mid and small caps are outperforming larger companies.Many of you may assume high market levels make it harder to find decent investment ideas. In reality we're still finding plenty of stocks well worth buying at current levels.The key is taking a long term view of a company and looking at...

An under the radar building materials company is worth nearly 2.5 times its current market value, according to analysts. Now is the perfect time to invest in SigmaRoc (SRC:AIM) as its third acquisition proves it can find good targets at decent prices.The company joined the stock market at the start of 2017 with the intention of buying niche businesses serving the UK and European construction...

Size matters. The UK's largest stocks are typically easy to buy and sell, hold dominant market positions, are often diversified across several different areas and typically generate plenty of cash which can be returned to shareholders through generous dividends.'Economies of scale' also make it cheaper for these market giants to buy in goods and services and allow them to manufacture their own...

You may be surprised to learn that eight companies on the AIM market are now worth more than £1bn each. The top company, ASOS (ASC:AIM) is even big enough to be part of the FTSE 100, should it ever decide to switch its listing to London's Main Market.AIM is considered to be a market for junior companies, providing a platform for them to grow.We discuss the strengths of the AIM market in the...

A Channel Islands construction firm previously owned by one of the world's biggest building materials businesses will join the UK stock market early in 2017.Cash shell SigmaRoc (SRC:AIM) is paying £45m for Ronez, a profitable quarries-to-road paving group with operations in Jersey and Guernsey. The deal is structured as a reverse takeover which means the acquirer is smaller in size than the...

Our 'Big Picks for 2016' portfolio gained an average of 2.2% versus a return on the FTSE All-Share of 12.9%. It's a disappointing performance compared to previous years, but at least we didn't lose money.After a decent start to the year, in which our stocks led the market in very tough conditions, it's tempting to blame Brexit for the reversal which started in June. But that would not be...

Managers and board room teams have, hopefully, a lot of knowledge about the businesses they run or oversee on behalf of shareholders.At the top of their respective industries, most senior staff at public companies will have worked through numerous economic and stock market cycles. They understand probably better than anyone else the key drivers of profitability within their business sector,...

Shares in Breedon Aggregates (BREE:AIM) gain 2.7% to 68p, taking week-to-date gains up to 7%, as its management provides a bullish assessment of the company's prospects in a half-year results update.A bellwether for UK construction activity, Breedon shifted 4.6 million tonnes of aggregates in the first six months of the year, up from 4.5 million in the same period last year.Revenue gained 2%...

After the worst New Year start for decades, the markets remain choppy as the first quarter of 2016 draws to a close and our 'Big Picks for 2016' portfolio reflects this up and down trajectory.Our best performer, emergency power generator Aggreko (AGK) is already ahead by an impressive 16.6%. Software firm Eagle Eye Solutions (EYE:AIM) is our worst, down by 16%.Overall we are just edging out...