UK Equity Income

Global equity income investors saw dividends leap by 31.4% in the first quarter of 2014, buoyed by special payouts, with the underlying increase rising at the fastest rate since 2012.

Neil Woodford is to launch his long-awaited equity income fund at the start of next month with a flat fee structure that will see his firm absorb admin costs.

Neil Woodford has said he plans to create a major asset management business, rather than a simple boutique, as he begins life at Woodford Investment Management.

US giant Pfizer has made an improved offer to buy AstraZeneca, the UK's second largest pharmaceuticals company, raising its bid to £50 a share.

FUND MANAGER FOCUS

Invesco Perpetual's Mark Barnett says uncertainty about the strength of economic growth in emerging markets, especially China, is still proving a headwind to global growth and influencing his portfolio choices.

GlaxoSmithKline, the UK's largest pharmaceutical group, and rival AstraZeneca, saw shares jump sharply - with the latter up 10% - as a series of deals in the sector boosted prices.

Lazard Asset Management has renamed its top performing UK income fund, run by Alan Custis and Alan Clifford.

The level of returns on offer from equity markets this year may disappoint investors, according to Threadneedle UK Equity Income managers Leigh Harrison and Richard Colwell.

Neil Woodford has told Hargreaves Lansdown's head of research, Mark Dampier, he is wary of a re-run of the eurozone crisis which began in late 2009 and battered stocks across the continent.