There was a certain degree of investor bemusement last month when shares in US electricity generation company Constellation Energy (CEG:NASDAQ) soared on news technology giant Microsoft (MSFT:NASDAQ) had signed a 20-year power purchase agreement.This was no ordinary deal, however, as it paves the way for the restart of Three Mile Island 1 ? not the reactor which famously melted down in 1979, but a

Paul's very first taste of investing came when his employer, aerospace and defence company Rolls Royce (RR.), introduced an employee share scheme which gave him what seemed to be a low-risk way of getting exposure to its shares.It seemed low risk, explains Paul, because the scheme allowed employees to save a monthly or four weekly amount for five years and at the end of the period the savings and

A dividend is quite simply a portion of a company's earnings distributed to its investors.In the UK most companies pay two ordinary dividends per year, one at the half-way stage (the interim or first-half dividend) and one at the end of the year (the final dividend). Some UK firms pay quarterly dividends.Sometimes, companies will decide to pay a special dividend on a one-off basis if their earning

Another year of above-average returns58th consecutive year of dividend growthLower annual feesThe popular City of London (CTY) investment trust delivered another year of outperformance and dividend growth, marking 58 consecutive years of increases, the longest record in the AIC's (Association of Investment Companies) list of Dividend Heroes.The shares traded down 1.65p or 0.37% to 439.9p, but are

Aeronautical engineer Rolls-Royce (RR.) is not going to be caught up in a new crisis after airline Cathay Pacific (0293:HKG) found a fault with the engines used 'on its fleet of Airbus (AIR:EPA) A350 jets.This was the prevailing mood among investors and analysts as the dust settled on a late afternoon trading session on 2 September following reports that a Rolls-Royce component failure led Cathay

Investors see optimism after panic sell-offJefferies analysts see limited impactRolls-Royce shares rallied 585% in two yearsAero-engineer Rolls Royce (RR.) is near the top of the FTSE 100 leaderboard on Tuesday (3 Sep) after analysts increasingly suggest a component failure that led airline Cathay Pacific (0293:HKG) to cancel some Airbus (AIR:EPA) A350 flights is probably less serious than Monday'

Anyone lucky enough to have enjoyed a long summer holiday and focused on the beach rather than their portfolio might not have noticed the recent jolt in global stock markets.While the second half of July was a miserable time markets amid fears of a US recession, the scale of the subsequent rebound has been remarkable.Glance at your portfolio now and you might only see a small dent. There is certai

The issue of executive pay and how it compares with that of the average worker is one which can generate a fair amount of heat and noise, but how much does it actually matter to shareholders?A new report from the High Pay Centre, a think tank which aims to promote quote, unquote fairer pay, shows the median pay of chief executives of FTSE 100 companies increased by 2.2% to £4.19 million in 2023.N

New £185 million contract win9% rise in half-year dividend to 3.8p per shareSelected by Rolls Royce as a construction partnerShares in Balfour Beatty (BBY) fell more than 3% to 394p in morning trading as the infrastructure group reported a widely expected rise in revenue for the first half of the year.However this news failed to excite investors who took the opportunity to cash in on a recent 52-

Shares in aero engine-maker Rolls-Royce (RR.) bolted 11% to 500p on 1 August, the first time in their history they have touched that milestone, after the firm posted forecast-beating first-half results and raised its full-year outlook.A 14% operating margin and 13.8% return on capital employed are testament to chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic's 'tough love' approach to optimising the firm's comme

Although shares in leading infrastructure group Balfour Beatty (BBY) haven't been immune to the recent pull-back in markets, they were recently sitting at their best level in more than a decade so investors will be keen to hear how the business has been performing when it reports half-year earnings on 14 August.In its last trading update in May, the firm said trading was in line with its full-year

The FTSE 100 was in the green on Friday morning, while other stocks were mostly downbeat amid gloomy UK retail sales data and a global IT outage.Companies around the world reported technical issues, with planes grounded, trains disrupted, and television and radio broadcasters taken offline. According to Sky News, Berlin Airport has halted all flights until 0900 BST, while Microsoft Corp said it wa

Defence and banks stocks top tableM&A wave creates big winnersConsumer stocks on the skidsIt hasn't been a vintage year for the UK stock market, but there are signs investors are coming back attracted by the cheap valuations on offer compared with the US as well as decent earnings prospects for UK companies.The FTSE 350 index is up 5.5% year-to-date, with the FTSE 100 large-cap benchmark up 5.6% j

French firm lowers forecastsBlames supply-chain issuesUK companies closely linkedUK aerospace and defence suppliers were knocked lower by a warning from Toulouse-based Airbus (AIR:EPA), which cut both its production forecast and its earnings outlook for this year due to continuing geopolitical and supply chain tensions.UK engineering companies such as Rolls-Royce (RR.) and Melrose (MRO), together

European stocks struggled early Tuesday, though the FTSE 100 managed a slight gain, with the mood in markets uncertain after US tech shares were sold off overnight.The FTSE 100 index traded 5.88 points higher, 0.1%, at 8,287.43. The FTSE 250 was down 57.93 points, 0.2%, at 20,504.64, though the AIM All-Share fell 0.72 of a point, 0.1%, at 771.14.The Cboe UK 100 fell 0.1% to 824.77, the Cboe UK 250

It was the best performing stock in the ranks of the FTSE 350 by some distance in 2023, and aircraft engine-maker Rolls-Royce's (RR.) share price has started 2024 in fine fettle to trade above pre-pandemic levels.There is no doubt Tufan Erginbilgiç has brought real seriousness to the business of turning around a company which had been struggling for years even before Covid grounded planes a

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

UK stocks continue to make new highsLower rates and stronger economy fan gainsBest-performing stocks over the last yearUK stocks continue to make new highs buoyed by increasing hopes interest rates will be cut this summer and decreasing worries of economic Armageddon.A dovish tone from Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey at this week?s (9 May) interest rate policy meeting and today?s (10 May) s

After almost closing at a new high in early April, the UK?s blue-chip FTSE 100 has finally made it into the ranks of indices hitting new all-time highs thanks to a 4.5% gain since the start of January.On 22 April the index reached its highest ever close and on 23 April it moved through its previous intra-day high.The UK clearly isn?t in the same league as the US, where the S&P 500 has notched up n

City of London most bought second month in a rowNvidia tops stock buys againRenewables trust UK Greencoat Wind sparks interestInvestors across the AJ Bell platform have been piling into artificial intelligence (AI) 'darling' Nvidia (NVDA:NASDAQ) and oil giant Shell (SHEL) before the end of the tax year.FTSE 100 aero-engine maker Rolls Royce (RR.) also makes appearance in the top five of most bough