F&C

Fund managers and analysts are predicting emerging markets and Asian funds could see improved performance over the next 12 months as the Thailand coup d'etat is likely to improve the price and return on equities.

Investment house F&C has announced it has moved underweight in equities for the first time in three years, but this contrasts with research from New Star which suggests equities perform best between October and January.

BANKS, LIFE assurers and fund managers are to be given leading roles in setting up and eventually running the government's proposed low-cost national pensions savings scheme.

Investors will have to get used to increased risk to their assets, warn IFAs and fund managers, as stockmarkets are likely to be more volatile in the future and there is less opportunity to protect assets in a downturn.

Asset managers say there are already strong UK investment benefits to be sought from London winning its bid to stage the 2012 Olympic Games.

A ‘no' vote in France and the Netherlands on the European Constitution, along with Britain's shelving of a referendum, is likely to see European bond spreads widen in the medium term and weaken the euro on the back of political instability, say fund houses....

Norwich Union yesterday stopped imposing exit penalties on with-profits pension holders who delay their retirement dates and Friends Provident is considering whether to follow suit, says the Daily Telegraph .

Friends Provident's subsidiary ISIS Asset Management is to merge with competitor Foreign & Colonial to create the UK's fourth biggest asset manager by funds under management.