Lloyds investors urged to take action

Shareholders in Lloyds Banking Group should either buy new shares in the bank’s £13.5bn rights issue or sell out altogether, according to private-client stock brokers

• Managers seek out specialist niches
• Fees shake-up will result in extra sums

Trader: Currencies

The official response to the aftermath of the last bubble in financial markets has been to inflate another.

Trader: Commodities

I said on August 7 that a reversal around $79 might prove a good opportunity to sell Brent crude oil.

Share Watch: British Land

The UK’s second largest real-estate investment trust has bolstered its board with two senior property fund managers

Sharewatch: Shanks

Shares in Shanks, a straight play on the health of the UK, Dutch and Belgian economies, were among the worst hit during the market crash, dropping about 80 per cent in six months

Matthew Vincent: A burning issue for index trackers

Treason and plot were just a few of the accusations levelled against me, for the apparently incendiary suggestion that the hidden costs of investment funds were a menace

Tax boost for Santander shareholders

More than 100,000 shareholders with Santander, the Spanish bank that owns Abbey and Alliance & Leicester, are receiving a tax boost to their latest dividends by taking the distribution in new shares rather than cash

Solicitors warn against DIY estate planning

Far more people are turning to their bank manager and the internet for advice on estate planning – raising concerns from solicitors that the advice given may not be adequate