Equities

Barclays said today its underlying profits for the first half of the year had fallen 7% after a drop in investment bank revenue, while it also reported another huge bill to compensate PPI customers.

Standard Life Investments has recruited a manager from SWIP to run its European Smaller Companies fund, raising questions over whether Ignis' Ian Ormiston will make the move to SLI.

Net retail sales of UK equity income funds hit a record high of £1.4bn last month, according to the Investment Management Association, as Neil Woodford's new fund provided a boon to the sector.

EUROPE

BlackRock has soft-closed its European Opportunities Extension fund at £540m to protect investors.

Private equity firm Electra has rebuffed activist investor Edward Bramson's attempt to become a director.

Rising valuations in healthcare stocks have led to fears of a bubble. Newton's Stephen Rowntree outlines the fundamentals which support valuations.

Jonathan Pines, manager of the top performing Hermes Asia ex-Japan Equity fund, explains why unloved Korea is his fund's biggest overweight.

The dangers of playing the momentum game

Emerging market equities are hovering near highs last seen in January 2013, after China posted stronger-than-expected economic data.