News

US and Asian markets fell overnight on fears the US government will fail to resolve its debt crisis, ahead of a crucial vote by the House of Representatives today.

Jeremy Tigue's £2.1bn Foreign & Colonial investment trust's half-year report shows its holdings in listed private equity drove performance, accounting for 11% of returns.

St. James's Place failed to make a profit from its distribution arm in the first half of 2011, citing the impact of the Retail Distribution Review (RDR), although group operating profit was up 13%.

The FTSE has plunged in mid-afternoon trading with banking stocks hard hit after Santander released poor results and the impasse over the US debt ceiling shows no sign of ending.

Legg Mason subsidiary Western Asset has expanded its global investment team with the appointment of Baillie Gifford's Gordon Brown and PIMCO's Chi-Liang Lian.

Cyprus is the latest nation to be slapped with a downgrade by Moody's, with its rating cut two notches over concerns the country is heading towards a bailout.

Veritas' Ezra Sun has rebutted claims the Chinese economy is in for a hard landing despite concerns debt problems in Europe and the US will have a domino effect across the world.

Aberdeen has appointed Henderson Extra Monthly Income Bond fund manager Ben Pakenham to help manage its range of high yield portfolios.

T1ps Investment Management (TIM) is set to launch the Elite t1ps India Fund, an equities-focused unit trust, on 1 August.

Rathbone Brothers has reported a pre-tax profit of £20.6m for the first six months of 2011, up 30.4% year-on-year.