UK high street enduringLow ticket leisure a winnerValue retail showing resilienceMany have sounded the death knell for the UK high street, notably during the Covid crisis as retail trends shifted towards online shopping. Yet, the high street has endured amid the consumer's persistent demand for physical retail.And despite many high street stocks successfully adapting to this evolving retail market

Ocado still the number one shortRetailers in general unlovedEnergy services stocks drilledShort-selling, or borrowing shares to sell in the hope of buying them back at a lower price, is not something most retail investors have the nerve or the skill-set to pull off as it requires a certain mindset and a willingness to tolerate heavy losses on occasion until your bets come right.For the pros, howev

UK takeovers moved up a gear in 2024 as predators targeted bigger companies. The average value of deals was £1.07 billion, nearly three times higher than the £390 million average in 2023. In total, there were £49 billion worth of recommended bids versus £17.2 billion last year.A bounty of unloved or underappreciated companies were swept off their feet, signalling the UK market as being 'on sal

What a mixed year this has turned out to be for Shares' best ideas for 2024.That our one star turn stock was an annuities and lifetime mortgage specialist, even if it was 'screamingly cheap at its current price', as we originally noted, and the supposedly exciting tech growth picks have been dull-to-dismal, might make you hark back to school days studies of Christopher Hill's The World Turned Upsi

Investment trusts have experienced challenges this year, with discounts remaining wide across various sectors and some consolidation occurring. However, certain trusts have performed well compared to both the wider market and their peer group. This article highlights the top performers across four of the Association of Investment Companies' most widely followed equity-facing sectors.GLOBALAn inves

Central banks have been the focus of the market's attention for the last few weeks, and by the time Shares is published the Federal Reserve will already have met to decide on interest rate cuts.The consensus is for another 0.25% cut this week to 4.5%, but bets on the extent to which US rates will fall have been pared back sharply in recent months and expectations for Fed policy in 2025 are much le

Strange as it may sound, the pandemic turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the auction industry as it forced firms to join the 21st century and offer an online service.Whereas previously many small auction houses were limited to the number of buyers they could accommodate due to lack of physical space, today they can not only tap into their local market but a whole army of online punters at

Saba's investment totals £1.5 billionSix of the seven trusts underperformedCompany proposes sacking directorsThe normally-sleepy world of investment trusts received a wake-up call this morning with the publication of a shareholder letter by activist investor Saba Capital Management calling for change at no fewer than seven well-known funds.The firm, which has a history of successfully instigating

Stock prices opened in the red in London, Paris and Frankfurt on Tuesday, as investors await eurozone trade balance and US industrial production data.The Office for National Statistics reported that UK unemployment, in the three months to the end of October, remained unchanged at 4.3% compared to the three months to the end of September. Growth in average earnings including bonuses picked up to 5.

UK indices were down at Friday's close as Resolute Mining announced a temporary change in its senior management, with Chief Executive Terry Holohan taking a leave of absence.In UK news, ministers will be given new powers to drive forward clean power energy projects as part of a major action plan to reach 95% clean energy in the UK by 2030.Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Miliband confirmed that minister

Markets 'challenging and unpredictable'US disruption and Korea destockingWax Lyrical performance improvingShares in British ceramics maker and homewares retailer Portmeirion (PMP:AIM) plunged 17% to a 10-year low of 170p on a warning annual profits will fall significantly short of forecasts, primarily due to delays getting stock into the US in time for the Christmas and destocking in South Korea.W

Lots of parents and grandparents default to cash when saving for their children or grandchildren, but most have a very long time until they will give the money to the children, meaning investing can be a great option. If we look at someone saving £1,000 a year from birth of the child until the age of 18, they'd hand them almost £8,000 more if they invested the money and earned 5% return a year a

Ashley blasts Boohoo's 'egotistical' founderFrasers' criticisms labelled 'superficial'Boohoo highlights 'credible' turnaround planBoohoo's (BOO:AIM) shares were bid up 2% to 36p after the struggling online fashion group revealed that Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has recommended shareholders reject Mike Ashley's bid to become CEO at the company's forthcoming general meeting (20 December

The FTSE 100 index closed up on Thursday, with AstraZeneca shares rising on US FDA approval of its Imfinzi treatment.Also on Thursday, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised a 'relentless focus on delivering for working people' ahead of a major speech setting out targets to measure progress on his government's plans.AJ Bell's Danni Hewson noted: 'The prime minister today said that households will

First-half pre-tax profit downBut EBIT beats forecasts'Strong start' to Christmas quarterShares in Watches of Switzerland (WOSG) rallied 8% to 540p after the luxury timepiece retailer clocked up better-than-feared first-half earnings and left full-year 2025 guidance unchanged, drawing confidence from recently-improved sales momentum and some large showroom openings to come.There was relief among i

The FTSE 100 achieved an unconvincing gain in early dealings, though stocks in mainland Europe rose with more conviction, with the CAC 40 shaking off political uncertainty in France.The FTSE 100 index added 5.59 points, 0.1%, at 8,341.40. The FTSE 250 rose 18.18 points, 0.1%, at 21,023.33, and the AIM All-Share fell just 0.32 of a point at 737.90.The Cboe UK 100 added 0.1% at 837.71, the Cboe UK 2

Automotive fluid storage and delivery specialist TI Fluid Systems (TIFS) became another statistic last week in the seemingly unstoppable wave of UK M&A (mergers and acquisitions).Having spurned two lower bids from Apollo-backed ABC Technologies, the auto parts-maker finally agreed a 200p per cash offer which valued the company at just over £1 billion.The offer represents a 21% premium to ABC's in

Spare a thought for Laszlo Hanyecz. You may not have heard of him, but in 2010 he spent 10,000 Bitcoins on two pizzas, in one of the first ever 'real world' crypto transactions. The market value of those Bitcoins is now $950 million. Hanyecz is pretty stoic about it, but deep down he must know that no amount of melted cheese can make up for the vast fortune he might have had. Hanyecz, a computer p

In next week's Shares, we face the unenviable task of getting out our crystal ball and attempting to work out what will happen with the markets in 2025.This time last year we were doing the same for 2024 and our resulting hit rate is reasonable looking back.We definitely got some things spot on. We flagged a wave of consolidation in the investment trusts space which has certainly materialised and

Investors already have access to thousands of companies around the world. The choice can be overwhelming so do we really need the launch of yet another stock market? The answer might be 'yes' if it offers something different to what's already available and a new market called 'Pisces' certainly ticks the right boxes.Pisces is the name for the UK government's new vision for privately-owned companie