The major UK equity indices started the final, half day of trading on a cautious note.At the market opening the blue chip FTSE 100 index was down 0.4% at 7370.23.However this equates to a year to date return of 14%, which would mark its strongest performance since 2016.Concerns surrounding the possibility that the UK government will be forced to impose some form of restrictions in the New Year...

London's FTSE 100 rose 15 points to 7,568 on Monday with strength in miners and tobacco stocks helping to offset weakness in banking and utilities names. European markets were less volatile than those in Asia, where big declines were seen across China, Hong Kong, India and Japan. Market chatter suggested that investors were no longer betting on sharp interest rate cuts in the US and so...

I t can sometimes only take a single company to cause ripples across an entire sector. That's evident in the IP (intellectual property) commercialisation sector which has gone from regularly trading at a premium to now languishing at a discount to net asset value or par.While that will be disappointing for investors already holding shares of sector constituents, it does also present an...

Virtual reality is one of the hottest areas in technology at the moment as the public finally gets a chance to buy a range of headsets. The equipment allows high-quality, immersive viewing of multimedia or computer-simulated reality. This could be big business for content providers and UK investors already have several ways in which to get exposure.Fresh from joining AIM on 16 May via a...

Many financial services companies give the impression that investors only top up their ISAs in the last few weeks of March and the first week of April, such is the intensity of their advertising during this period. That is not true. The clever investor is the one who invests throughout the year and not simply the days leading up to the end of the tax year.The new tax year is now underway and...

You might think it would be difficult to outperform the equity market at present. As we write, UK shares are rattling along nicely with the FTSE 100 back above 7,000. Yet our Plays of the Week portfolio continues to show the benefits of well-researched stock picking and is outpacing the wider market by some distance.In the past 12 months, our portfolio has produced an 9% average return (before...

Mercia Technologies (MERC:AIM) 56.5pLoss to date: 12.7%Previous Shares view: Buy at 64.75p, 19 Feb 2015Don't panic about the recent share price decline at intellectual property incubator Mercia Technologies (MERC:AIM) as the business continues to take the right steps to create future value. Since we highlighted Mercia in February, the £120 million cap has announced two investments and...

Computer game fans are desperate to get their hands on virtual reality (VR) headsets that provide a fully-immersive 3D experience. Following a soft launch in October 2014, first-to-market Samsung (005930:KS) is about to unveil a big marketing push for its Gear VR headset. Sony (6758:T), Microsoft (MSFT:NDQ) and Oculus are expected to launch their first consumer VR hardware products soon after....

Latham (James) (LTHM:AIM) 577.5pSheet and hardwood supplier Latham has been consistently profitable for the past 10 years, more than doubling operating profit in the same period. The Hemel Hempstead-based company is expected to grow earnings per share 19% to 39.5p this year.Leaf Clean Energy (LEAF:AIM) 34pRenewable energy investor Leaf Clean is a closed-end fund in run-off. At a meeting in...

The ratio of stock market floats to be in the money is higher than you might think. According to our analysis, 87 of the 120 IPOs (initial public offerings) in 2014 have outperformed the market, as represented by the FTSE All-Share index.Of the 120 IPOs this year, 74 have delivered a positive return and four have exceeded 100% gains on their listing price. In a period when the broader market...