Investment Funds

New research from Halifax Financial Services, analysing stock price indices across the 27 members of the European Union over the last five years, shows that stock prices across the EU have increased by an average of 118% since 2003.

An earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale hit Sichuan province in southwest China yesterday (May 12th). The origin of the earthquake was in Wenchuan county, about 100 km to the northwest of the provincial capital of Chengdu.

Simon Ward, chief economist at New Star, comments on today's inflation data: Today's inflation figures are shocking but should not have come as a complete surprise given recent warning signals.

Stock markets are excessively gloomy and fixated on the macroeconomic threat of contagion from a weak US economy, according to Ian Ormiston, European investment director at Resolution Asset Management.

Investec Asset Management is pleased to announce the launch of its offshore Middle East and North Africa Fund.

Stock market volatility has prompted a dramatic switch among investors in their attitude to risk, new research among IFAs by Prudential shows.

Standard Life Investments, one of the largest property fund managers in Europe, has announced that it has made its third direct investment in the Asia Pacific property market with the acquisition of a property in Brisbane, Australia for AU$37.5m.

Subject to FSA and investor approval, the £5.5 million New Star Japan Fund will merge into the £105 million New Star Pacific Growth Unit Trust, which is managed by Ian Beattie.

SVM Asset Management, the Edinburgh based independent fund management group, will launch the SVM Cautious Managed and SVM Balanced Managed Funds on 15 May 2008.

The latest US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figure revealing an annual rate of 0.6% in the first quarter of 2008 belies talk of recession, according to Cory Gilchrist, manager of Gartmore Investment Management's US Opportunities Fund and the Gartmore SICAV US Opportunities Fund.

Gonzalo Baranda from Investment Marketing at JPMorgan Asset Management explains: "There are several reasons. On the supply side poor harvests due to adverse weather conditions and decreasing growth in productivity have not been able to cope with the increase in demand.

Leading fund manager, Standard Life Investments has announced that it has launched its Global Absolute Return Strategies (GARS) Fund to retail investors.

Jupiter is delighted to announce the launch of the Jupiter Strategic Bond Fund on 2 June 2008.

Forsyth-OBSR has upgraded Newton’s £1.4 billion Managed Fund from A to AA rating on the back of consistently solid returns.

Natural resources edged ahead of banks in April in terms of its weighting in the FTSE 100 Index. Around 16% of the blue-chip benchmark is now invested in mining and basic resources companies, a whisker ahead of beleaguered banks.

Europe’s large cap laggards, companies regarded as conservative and boring, are destined to be the benefactors of the post credit crunch environment, says Rajesh Shant, manager of the Newton European Higher Income Fund.

Sarah Arkle, Threadneedle Chief Investment Officer comments: Government bond markets in the US and UK should continue to benefit from the constructive backdrop of slowing economic growth and lower interest rates.

The Association of Investment Companies (AIC) recently hosted a press roundtable lunch on the investment company Hedge Fund sector with BH Marco and Tapestry Investment Company.

Standard Life Investments, one of the largest property investors in Europe, has signed an agreement with developers Helical Poland to fund a 170m retail park near Opole in Poland.

Barclays Wealth, one of the UK's leading suppliers of capital protected investments, is launching a new suite of plans for investors seeking shelter from ongoing market volatility.

The Asian middle class consumer remains the main attraction to investing in the region, despite alarming headlines about the recent acceleration in rising soft commodity prices and their negative impact on the average household budget.

As shareholders around the world pore over thousands of ballots for this year's proxy voting season, the US will see its first-ever UK-style advisory vote on pay, when investors in Aflac, a mid-sized insurer, becomes the first US company to invite its owners to approve its compensation report.

Global demand for energy is pushing the frontier of oil exploration into deep-water locations below the ocean floor. In these locations, the water is too deep for operators to use conventional freestanding steel platforms.

Chinese banks have posted strong results for the first quarter of 2008, helped by robust lending, strong growth of wealth management products and a cut in the corporate tax rate from 33% to 25% in January 2008.

JPMorgan Asset Management has announced that the JPM Cautious Total Return Fund is seeing its best sales growth ever, having doubled its assets under management from around £200m in August 2007 to over £400m today.