Interest Rates

Important interest rate announcements were made in June, both in the UK and the US. The US Federal Reserve announced its seventh 0.25% increase in interest rates since December 2015, taking the level to 1.75%-2.00%. The rise had already been incorporated in market prices by...

The latest quarterly review of the FTSE 100 revealed common misunderstandings about how the index is drawn up. Every quarter FTSE Russell, which operates all the FTSE indices, decides which companies are promoted or demoted from the FTSE 100 index. There had been speculation that the...

Important changes affecting Chinese market indices took effect in June 2018, which could affect emerging market funds. On 1 June 2018, the index provider MSCI added 233 domestic Chinese stocks to its emerging market and global indices. MSCI has some of the most widely used indices...

The world’s share markets were a profitable place to be in 2017. 2017 had its fair share of dramas. There was the unending reality show of Donald Trump and his tweets. On this side of the Atlantic the ongoing saga was Brexit and the “strong and...