With the widespread cancellation or deferment of dividends, it is reassuring that some segments of the listed sphere seem immune to the impact of Covid-19. Both United Utilities (UU.) and Severn Trent (SVT) felt able to increase their full-year pay-outs, but questions linger as to how safe the utility distributions really are. Click here for our musings on the subject.
Short attacks are positively de rigueur nowadays, though the motivation behind them can be open to question. They might be in fashion, but that is of little consolation to online rag trader Boohoo (BOO), which has come under the cosh from short-seller ShadowFall. Nothing like a spot of retail therapy to cheer you up, so Boohoo has decided to take complete control of the somewhat unsettlingly named fashion retailer PrettyLittleThing. Click here to get the thoughts of the IC’s answer to Beau Brummell - Alex Janiaud.
Many people were surprised that the massive quantitative easing (QE) programmes undertaken in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis did not give way to runaway inflation. But QE did not increase the physical money supply, either here or in the US. Unfortunately, existing government schemes to ward off the worst effects of the lockdown may lead to a different outcome – we shall see. If you feel the currency is being debased it makes sense to add physical gold as a backstop to your investment portfolio. The IC’s mining correspondent Alex Hamer will be keeping our readership up to date on the precious metals markets as events unfold. This week he has been reviewing prospects for Russia-focussed gold miner Petropavlovsk (POG). Click here to get our resident digger’s appraisal of the miner’s expansion plans.
The future is hard to know. But after we exit our diseased state, we can be relatively confident that two things will happen (assuming they are not already). The first is that M&A deals will be subject to enhanced due diligence processes. The second is that we will witnesses large-scale reallocations within property portfolios. The latter point is already in evidence in Emma Powell’s assessment of British Land’s (BLND) full-year figures. Click here to read Emma’s thoughts on the matter.
