What Investment articles from December 2002

What Investment archives from December 2002

Boom, boom!
December 1, 2002... November was a month when economic and political news once again dominated the headlines. The much-heralded cut in US interest rates was announced in the first week of the month with a greater than expected 0.5 per cent cut injecting the...

Keep on smiling.
December 1, 2002... Internet bank Smile has launched a share dealing service designed to make it easier for anyone to buy and sell online. The service has been launched in conjunction with Self Trade and investors can deal at a flat-rate of 12.50 [pounds sterling]...

Get a head start.
December 1, 2002... Hargreaves Lansdown and Friends Provident have launched the Head-start stakeholder pension plan. The plan is designed to enable parents, grandparents and guardians to invest up to 2,808 [pounds sterling] in each tax year, to build a pension...

With-profits?
December 1, 2002... IFA Bestinvest has published the latest issue of The Best Guide to With Profits Bonds based on a detailed six-month survey of the market. Call 0800 037 0100 for a free copy.

Spotting star potential.(News Round-up)
December 1, 2002... Bestinvest, the independent adviser and investment research group, has launched an investment tool designed to put the personal track records of fund managers under the spotlight. The tool looks at each manager's identifiable career record...

The drawdown dilemma.(News Round-up)
December 1, 2002... Stock market crashes and WorldCom and Equitable Life fiascos have sent retirees rushing for the relative safety of conventional annuities, despite the added safeguards offered to new investors in income drawdown, says The Drawdown Bureau. ...

Get with it.
December 1, 2002... Scottish Life International has launched "a clear and simple alternative to with-profits bonds". The Protected Bonus Bond will provide investors with 100 per cent capital security plus minimum growth of 18 percent over the six-year and...

Look back for the future.(News Round-up)
December 1, 2002... Past performance can be a guide to future returns according to the Investment Management Association (IMA). Independent research by the IMA indicates that, for UK equity funds over the past 20 years, selecting a fund with top quartile past...

Spoilt for choice.(News Round-up)
December 1, 2002... Investors keen to bag a bargain in the investment world should take a look at the investment trust sector according to Nick Greenwood, chief investment officer at investment management firm iimia. Investment trust discounts have widened so far,...

Divvy it up.
December 1, 2002... The dividend is back, according to fund management group Invesco Perpetual. Gone are the days when investors regarded dividends-income producing stocks--as rather dull investments relative to growth stocks, it says. But in uncertain and...

Teach in.
December 1, 2002... Execution-only broker TD Waterhouse has opened its first UK Investor Centre in Holborn, London. Open Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm, the centre offers access to online and telephone trading, market information, comprehensive research...

Islamic options.
December 1, 2002... A 'halal' investment service for Muslims who wish to invest in the stock market has been launched by stockbroker Redmayne Bentley. The service enables private clients to buy and sell shares in major global stock markets in a Sharia-compliant...

Covering up.
December 1, 2002... European stockbroker Comdirect has launched a covered warrants trading platform on its website. The service will enable investors to obtain a live quote and trade immediately for a flat fee of 12.50 [pounds sterling]. Visit www.comdirect.com.

Top ten funds.
December 1, 2002... Unit Trust One Year Performance 1 Merrill Lynch Gold & Gen 144.00 2 Schroder Seoul 127.16 3 Old Mutual Thailand Acc 122.87 4 Baring Korea ...

SVM Asset Management.(New Offers)
December 1, 2002... SVM Asset Management has launched three new funds: UK Opportunities, UK 100 Select and Continental Europe. The UK Opportunities fund will focus on building a portfolio of 40 stocks drawn from outside the FTSE 100 enabling it to produce returns...

Homeowners Investment Fund Managers.(New Offers)
December 1, 2002... Homeowners Investment Fund Managers, a subsidiary of Homeowners Friendly Society, is launching The Education ISA aimed at encouraging parents to save for their children's higher education whilst the children are young. Contributions are...

Keydata.(Product of the month)
December 1, 2002... Keydata Investment Services has launched the Dynamic Growth Plan, a five-year product offering double any rise in the FTSE 100 with a cap of 80 per cent. Capital is fully protected unless the FTSE falls by more than 50 per cent over the term...

Britannia Building Society.(Also launching this month ...)
December 1, 2002... Britannia Building Society has launched a five-year Guaranteed Capital Equity Bond. The GCEB offers the potential return of 35 per cent gross, provided the FTSE 100 rises or remains the same at the end of the five-year term. Capital is 100 per...

Legal & General.(Also launching this month ...)
December 1, 2002... Legal & General has designed the 'Select ISA' to provide investors with a ready-made core portfolio of three Legal & General index trackers plus a corporate bond fund to provide maximum portfolio diversification. The trackers' annual fees range...

Chelsea Building Society.(Also launching this month ...)
December 1, 2002... Chelsea Building Society has launched the Guaranteed Bond (4th Issue). The bond's variable interest rate is currently 4.25 per cent gross pa and is guaranteed to fall no lower than the Bank of England base rate before 6 May 2004, after which...

Panel of experts.
December 1, 2002... * Graeme Cumming is a financial adviser at Save & Invest * Patrick Connolly is an associate director at Chartwell Investment Management * Edward Creasey is a financial adviser at RJ Boorer & Associates * Milena Atanassova is a...

Scottish Mutual.(New offers)
December 1, 2002... Scottish Mutual has launched The Commercial Property Plan, a single premium investment investing in a pool of UK commercial property assets, which will be available for ISAs and PEP transfers as well as for SIPPs and SSASs and direct...

Managers on the move: should you stay or should you go? Keiron Root looks into the reasons behind recent fund manager moves.(Fund managers)
December 1, 2002... The increasing frequency with which high profile managers are changing jobs can be largely explained by the fact that they have built up a successful track record at one management house, which their new employers hope the will repeat. Some...

Bright ideas for global growth: David Burrows argues the case for global diversification.(Cover Story)
December 1, 2002... It would be an understatement to say investor confidence is low at the moment--it is positively subterranean. It all looked so rosy back in the late-90s, with 'sure-fire winners' wherever you looked. Then the tech bubble burst and the markets...

Spice it up: investment trusts: should you go with what you know or venture forth into new arenas?(Big versus small ITs)
December 1, 2002... Unit trust investors have an apparently easy choice when it comes to picking a fund. Most will make their choices from familiar, heavily advertised brands, such as Fidelity, Gartmore, Invesco, Jupiter, M&G, Schroders and Threadneedle, plus...

Making bread: David Harris examines the potential for performance-related fees in the UK investment market.(Performance fees)
December 1, 2002... The past few years have brought little else but pain and misery for investors into collective equity funds in the UK. Every time a valuation statement arrives it brings further doom and gloom. Now, it seems perfectly reasonable for investors to...

Take it to the limit: as residential property nears the peak in its cycle Martin Fagan asks if there's still time to cash-in on commercial returns.(Proverty investments)
December 1, 2002... It was Mark Twain who urged people to buy land on the basis that "they weren't building any more of it" and it was Karl Marx who declared that all property was theft. The truth probably lies--doesn't it always?--somewhere in between the two...

More tea vicar?
December 1, 2002... Astonishing, you could hear a pin drop. With the new Witan Simple Contribution Pension, you can now enjoy a slice of the Witan cake, with the icing supplied by HM Government. Come along, do tuck in! Eat, drink and be merry The...

A touch overdone? Is a corporate bond fund a good home for your cash?(Q & A)
December 1, 2002... When the investment market is awash with a certain type of product, you can bet your bottom dollar that the bandwagon is on the highway heading out of town. Corporate bonds, say some market analysts, are a fine example of such a product....

Off the shelf: basket in hand, Amanda Harvey goes fund shopping online.(Technology)
December 1, 2002... Volatile markets have not done online discount brokers and fund supermarkets any favours. In fact, the rivalry between Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's is a playground scuffle compared with the cut-throat battle of the fund supermarkets. Fund...

United Kingdom: interesting times ahead: the UK offers good long-term value despite continued market volatility and investor nerves.(World Markets)
December 1, 2002... Although all the major UK equity indices the FTSE All-Share, FTSE 100, FTSE 250 and the FTSE Small Cap--fell during the third quarter, fund managers are still confident of the resilience of the UK economy. "The notional real yield on UK...

United States: the consumer is still king: low interest rates and tax cuts inspire the US consumer to spend, spend, spend.(World Markets)
December 1, 2002... "US equities are at their lowest values for 30 years," says Alan Torry, head of US equities at SG Asset Management. "Despite all the pessimism, the US had 3.1 per cent growth in the third quarter this year, and it is the consumer which is...

Europe: stuck in a rut: the European economy remains in the doldrums as corporate and retail spending fails to pick up.(World Markets)
December 1, 2002... Inflation in Europe is still above the European Central Bank's target of 2 percent, hampering opportunities to cut rates. Part of the problem, says Haydn Davies, chief economist at Barclays Global Investors, is that although interest rates are...

Far East: the path of progress: low interest rates, low unemployment and favourable demographics make Asia the market of the moment.(World Markets)
December 1, 2002... With the fall in share prices and continued evidence of economic progress, Asian share prices are once again looking attractive according to Credit Suisse Asset Management. Asia's current account surpluses, minimal foreign debt, stable...

Japan: long journey back: opinion is mixed on prospects for Japan with some fund managers even predicting a return to recession.(World Markets)
December 1, 2002... "Since the Japanese equity market bubble burst in the early-90s, deflation has been protracted, causing a dramatic turn in fortune for the economy," says Andrew Milligan, head of global strategy at Standard Life Investments. "Now the Bank of...

Emerging markets: raise a smile: new governments in Turkey and Brazil are making all the right noises.(World Markets)
December 1, 2002... "We are quite keen on the emerging market asset class over the next 12 to 18 months," says Sam Mahtani of Foreign & Colonial's emerging markets team. "They have participated, to some extent, in the global market rally that we saw in October,...

Market insider: India: continuing our series providing a fundamental analysis of a region from an economic and political perspective.(World Markets)
December 1, 2002... Unless you have family connections with the Indian subcontinent, Bombay probably won't be the first place that comes to mind when you're considering which emerging stock market you ought to choose for your investments in 2003. The Bombay market...

Market view: Britain's best-known short-seller.(UK Shares)
December 1, 2002... Britain's best-known short-seller Evil Kneivil told me that during October his short positions had cost him 1.5 million [pounds sterling] such was the violence of the upswing in the markets so much for an October crash! The FTSE 100 rose by 7.9...

UK stock performance.(UK Shares)
December 1, 2002... UK STOCK PERFORMANCE RANK Company Weight in 1 Month Name Index Return TOP 20 FTSE All-Share 1 Gartmore Distribution Trust 0.00% 111.54% 2 PPL...

FTSE 100 index.(UK Shares)
December 1, 2002... FTSE 100 INDEX Stock 1 month Rank 1 year Rank 3i Group 115.78 25 68.40 79 Abbey National 128.16 8 68.19 80 Alliance & Leicester Plc...

Index constituent rankings FTSE 100.(UK Shares)
December 1, 2002... INDEX CONSTITUENT RANKINGS FTSE 100 Rank Security Price Dividend Dividend P/E Yield Cover Ratio 1 BP 410 3.87% ...

Oil & gas sector view.(UK Shares)
December 1, 2002... The FTSE Oil & Gas sector has 15 constituents, but in reality the performance of this sector is driven almost entirely by the success or failure of Shell Transport & Trading (the UK-listed part of the Royal Dutch Shell group) and of BP. With...

Oil & gas share view.(UK Shares)
December 1, 2002... At 403p, BP has seen its market value fall by almost a third over the past six months. In part this is beyond its control. As a liquid blue chip its stock will always be sold down when the Footsie is falling sharply as it has done this year....

European sector review: Hilary Cook, director of investment strategy at Barclays Private Clients, examines the prospects for the European pharmaceutical sector.(Stock Market Review)
December 1, 2002... With an ageing and wealthier population expected to spend an increasing amount on healthcare, the global pharmaceutical industry appears to offer assured earnings in the current difficult economic environment. However, many pharmaceutical...

Unit trust best buys.(Unit Trusts Monitor)
December 1, 2002... What Investment asks three independent financial advisers to recommend their favourite unit trusts for a cautious, a balanced and an aggressive investment CAUTIOUS OPTION Phillip Johnson, director of Kenwood Associates, draws attention...

Performance tables.(Unit Trusts OEICs)
December 1, 2002... What the tables show The figures show the value of 100 [pounds sterling] over six months, one, three, five and 10 years to 31 October 2002, on an offer-to-bid basis with net income reinvested. Funds are listed by sector so that you can...

A roaring success: Liontrust's William Pattisson talks to Keiron Root about his distinctive approach to money management.(Fund Manager Profile)
December 1, 2002... Liontrust Asset Management is undoubtedly one of the fastest-growing and most consistent fund management houses in the UK. Small it might be, but perfectly formed it certainly is. Established in its present form in 1995, Liontrust has based its...

Investment trust best buys.(Investment Trusts Monitor)
December 1, 2002... What Investment asks three independent financial advisers to recommend their favourite investment trusts for a cautious, a balanced and an aggressive investment CAUTIOUS OPTION Adrian Neave of stockbrokers Goy Harris Cartwright regards...

Performance tables.(Investment Trusts)
December 1, 2002... What the tables show The figures show the value of 100 [euro] invested over six months, one, three, five and ten years to 31 October 2002, on a mid-market basis with net income reinvested. Funds are listed by sector so that you can compare...

Change for the better?(Money Clinic)
December 1, 2002... Can anyone explain to me the new child tax credits? this credit seems to have undergone a significant number of changes in recent years. J Heathcott Ipswich Tax consultant Eileen Doherty replies: Yes, the situation is very...

Taking care.(Money clinic)
December 1, 2002... I am a 74-year old male pensioner and my IFA recently told me about a Norwich Union care-home investment plan. I'm not sure if this plan is still available or if there are other similar plans which you consider to be better value for money. ...

Distributing your profit.(Money clinic)
December 1, 2002... A financial adviser recently recommended that I consider distribution bonds as an alternative to investments such as with--profits bonds. At the time his advice sounded very sensible--although I didn't actually make an investment at that...

Best ways to save.(Reference)
December 1, 2002... NO-NOTICE ACCOUNTS Company Account Gross Interest Name Rate Freq. Balance of 500 [pounds sterling] Abbey National ...

Personal pension annuity rates.(Reference)
December 1, 2002... An annuity is a financial product that converts capital into income. You can buy one with any lump sum of money or you can buy one with accrued pension funds. Currently, for money purchase pension funds, you must buy an annuity by the time you...

Top-performing unit-linked pensions.(Reference)
December 1, 2002... TOP-PERFORMING UNIT-LINKED PENSIONS Five years to 31 October 2002. Results of 100 [pounds sterling] invested on an offer-to-bid basis with gross income reinvested. Name Value Rank ...

Financial contacts ISA directory.
December 1, 2002... FINANCIAL CONTACTS ISA DIRECTORY NAME & ADDRESS NAME OF SCHEME Abbey National[R] Investments/Tracker ISA Tel: 0800 300 20 30 Allchurches Investment ...