The deadline for using up this tax year's £20,000 ISA allowance is fast approaching. You have until 5 April to use it or lose it, so now is the time to think about topping up your account.Clearly there are reasons to be nervous as an investor amid rising inflation and tensions in Ukraine, but you do have the option of putting cash into an investment ISA now and sitting on it until you're...

While we regularly look at how our Great Ideas are getting on we have had reader feedback about providing more clarity on the performance of our investment ideas elsewhere in the magazine.This feature will therefore be the first of several in the coming months where we look retrospectively at these other ideas to see if they have added value.As a starting point, we are revisiting our article...

Surely every investor loves a bargain and in various ways all investors think of themselves as value investors. Sadly, what's been working for investors since the great financial crisis of 2008 is more akin to quality and growth investing. This strategy focuses on the potential growth and quality of a business and less on valuation.Value managers don't shun growth, but they focus more on the...

All eyes are on the second half of the year for mineral sands miner Kenmare Resources (KMR) as it looks to complete a capital project that could see its production capability soar and, according to analysts, drive an upward re-rating of its share price.The Irish-headquartered firm, which has its operations in Mozambique, is in the process of moving its Wet Concentrator Plant B (WCP B) to its...

UK shares come under selling pressure in early trade on Wednesday following a bleak overnight session in the US. Wall Street suffered its worst trading day this year as investor concerns about whether President Donald Trump will be able to deliver promised tax cuts weigh on confidence.That dragged both the Dow Jones and S&P 500 lower with banks, which have helped to propel share markets to...

It only takes the slightest tweak to commodity forecasts for a miner's earnings to disappear. That's exactly what has happened with mineral sand producer Kenmare Resources (KMR) which is no longer expected to make any money when it reports 2016 results on 22 March 2017.Investment bank Canaccord previously forecast $16.8m EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) for...

Former FTSE 250 miner Kenmare Resources (KMR) delivered record production of ilmenite in 2016 and expects to produce even more in 2017.Kenmare produces ilmenite, which is used in paint and sunscreen, at a mineral sands mine at Moma, Mozambique. Production in 2016 increased 18% from 763,500 tonnes to 903,300 tonnes.Management guidance for production in 2017 was hiked further from 950,000 to...

Russian silver and gold miner Polymetal (POLY) has returned to the FTSE 100 three years after it was demoted amid a broader decline in commodity prices.It takes the place of housebuilder Berkeley (BKG) which is demoted from the blue chip index in the FTSE's quarterly reshuffle.Polymetal on 24 August 2016 reported a 67% rise in net earnings to $164 million for the first half of the year and a...

Shares as well as sterling are off to a flyer at the start of the week as the FTSE 100 gains 2.1% to 6,144 and Britain's currency surges close to three cents against the dollar.On the back of gains overnight in Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Mumbai, the blue chip rally in London is led by banks and housebuilders in a continuation of Friday's trading action.Moving the other way, pharmaceuticals...

London shares fall in early trade on Thursday on financials and house builders as miners gain, with the session rich with ex-dividend stocks. This after the Nikkei fell when Bank of Japan held off on further stimulus and left rates unmoved, while a dovish Fed also stayed rates.The FTSE 100 index tumbles more than 90 points, or 1.5%, to 6,227, while midcaps and smaller companies post similar...

Fulneck School's alumni include a former Prime Minister (Herbert Henry Asquith), a Chemist Nobel Laureate (Sir Robert Robinson) and two former England cricketers (William Booth and Leonard Hutton). With such an impressive list, it is perhaps unsurprising that the school provides an array of extra-curricular activities to help its pupils excel - and this year, for the first time, these include...

A warningover 2016 earnings expectations sends FTSE 100 outsourcer Serco (SRP) down 7.3% to 106p. While 2015 profit is set to beat market forecasts at £95 million, next year's guidance is for a mere £50 million.Luxury interior furnishings firm Walker Greenbank (WGB:AIM) is marked down 4.4% to 207.5p as it warns profit will be hit by flooding at its Lancaster-based factory, caused by heavy...

The FTSE 100 has recovered from early losses to trade 10 points higher at 6,956 points following mixed first quarter results from some of the market's largest names.Oil major Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB) is up 0.9% to £20.87 as an excellent contribution from its refining business helped outweigh the impact of lower commodity prices in the first quarter. Underlying profits for the first three...

UK stock markets stage a sort of recovery in early trade Friday as investors go bargain hunting again following yesterday's volatile day of trading that saw the FTSE 100 hit an intra-day low of 6,072.68, a level not seen since June 2013. The benchmark Footise rallies 61 points to 6,256, with oil stocks doing much of the early running as Brent crude prices bounce off a four-year lows.Oil and...

On 20 August, the Financial Times ran the headline 'What next for M&A now the bubble has burst?'. The pink paper noted that takeover proposals worth in excess of $100 billion had collapsed. Citing in particular 21st's Century Fox's (FOX:NDQ) $71 billion attempt to buy Time Warner (TWX:NYSE). This seems a bit premature; if anything deals are flowing through at a surprising rate and we expect...

The Basic Materials industry is represented by industrial metals and forestry/paper stocks, yet the dominant component by a long mile is mining. Although we're presently in the wrong part of the commodities cycle for any company to stand a chance of overtaking the large cap behemoths including Glencore (GLEN) and Rio Tinto (RIO), anyone who takes a long-term positive view on commodities does...

Analysts continue to argue Kenmare Resources (KMR) should trade on a much higher valuation but the case is far from clear cut. It is just as easy to assert the stock is cheap with good reason, since significant risks remain at the mineral sands producer, even as it resolves certain financial and operational issues. The shares could still drift downwards until the £416 million cap shows...

Pet food and accessories seller Pets at Home (PETS) fails to enjoy a large share price increase seen with so many other IPOs over the past year. The £1.2 billion retailer initially saw its share price fall on its first day of dealings, now easing back to the 245p IPO price.In contrast, discounter Poundland (PLND) powers ahead 15.25% to 345.75p on its stockmarket debut, having priced its IPO...

Anglo American (AAL) beats consensus forecasts with its full-year results. There's no growth in the dividend, unlike many of its FTSE 100 mining peer group, but it is good to see improvement in the general business performance with a focus on costs and profit margins. That explains the 1.5% rise in the share price to £15.56 yet we remain cautious on the stock. As we detailed in this article,...

The latest retreat in the FTSE 100 means Britain's premier benchmark still stands tantalisingly just below its all-time closing high of 6,930, reached on 31 December 1999. January's stumble took the index down from 6,837 to 6,510, much of the decline occurring in just five trading days (21 Jan to 27 Jan), as the market took fright over the US Federal Reserve's plans to taper its quantitative...