Prices and Markets

Mark Gordon-James, manager of Aberdeen Frontier Markets (AFMC), has made a material personalinvestment in the trust, and therefore has shared in the pain experienced by AFMC’s shareholders as the fund has underperformed a falling benchmark index. He is, however, convinced of the fundamental attractions of the stocks in AFMC’s portfolio and believes that these will, in time, be reflected in AFMC’s NAV returns. AFMC : Aberdeen Frontier Markets – Incentivised to perform The board has introduced a performance-driven exit opportunity (see...

2017 was a particularly interesting year in the global energy markets as crude oil declined from around $55 per barrel in January to around $43 per barrel in June before rising again to end the year around $65 per barrel. OPEC's move to cut oil production levels as a proactive move to end the 3-year supply glut in oil started bearing fruits in 2017 and the bullish trend is building up momentum to continue in 2018.Crude oil is already up...

#IGCommodityChat: what is the future of gold? IG is presenting ‘IG CommodityChat’ – a series of live discussions focused on trends in commodity marketThe first chat looked at what the future might be for the goldmarket (this took place on 22nd November)Presenter Sara Walker was joined by Simon Popple, director of Brookville Capital, and Ross Norman, CEOof Sharps Pixley. The gold mining industry has becoming increasingly constrained by the scarcity of the precious metal. The difficulty in finding gold has caused...

Ian “Franco” Francis, the manager of CQS New City High Yield (NCYF), says that although markets seem buoyant, investors should be warier than they are. He sums this up with a quote from his former boss, who cautioned him by saying “Escalators do not go to the sky”. This is not to say that there aren’t any opportunities in the market (for example, currently he sees these in the financials and discount consumer retail sectors), but investors must be selective...

QuotedData’s economic roundup – November 2018 is a collation of recent insights on markets and economies taken from the comments made by chairmen and investment managers of investment companies – have a read and make your own minds up. Please remember that nothing in this note is designed to encourage you to buy or sell any of the companies mentioned. Kindly sponsored by Polar Capital. Roundup Markets fell in October with stocks in Asia and emerging economies being particularly weak, on...

QuotedData’s investment companies roundup – November 2018 is our latest roundup of news; price, NAV and discount movements; flows in and out of the sector and report on full year dividends announced over the month of October 2018. Kindly sponsored by Baillie Gifford. Winners and losers in October In what was generally a miserable month for equity markets, Brazil shone on the back of Bolsanaro’s election, boosting JPMorgan Brazil, Aberdeen Latin American Income and BlackRock Latin American. EPE Special Opportunities benefitted from the sale of...

After two years of strong performance, Pacific Horizon (PHI) has suffered a reversal of fortune over the last three months. Sentiment swung against both China and the technology sector (both significant portfolio weights for PHI), with savage share price falls in some areas. However, it is possible that this reversal of fortune may prove to be short-lived, if China and the US can agree a trade deal. Pacific Horizon - Pause for breath? PHI’s strong focus on fast growing companies means...

Sareum Holdings’ (Sareum’s) investment case centres on the development of a therapy for the treatment of solid tumours (SRA737, a Chk1 inhibitor – see page 6 for an explanation) and the potential licensing of internally-generated candidates for the treatment of autoimmune disease and cancer (TYK2/JAK1 inhibitors –see page 8). Sareum Holdings - TYKing the boxes Sareum is effectively a passive investor in SRA 737, which is licensed for development to Sierra Oncology. QuotedData’s model values Sareum’s 27.5% economic interest in this...

Within the universe of UK equity income investment trusts, Shires Income (SHRS) stands out from the herd. It sets out to offer investors a meaningfully higher dividend yield than UK equity markets and aims to make this sustainable by diversifying the fund’s sources of income. SHRS also makes use of the flexibility afforded by its closed-end structure to increase its income by using borrowings in a pragmatic fashion SHRS : Shires Income – Sustainable high yield High level of income with potential for...