Friday Email: 04 October 2013
Every Friday morning our lead analyst Mark Riding sends out his weekly run-down and upcoming events in the investor calendar, like this one:
Our recent cautious stance on the market has been vindicated this week as stock markets around the globe have come under pressure as the US politicians wrestle once again with US budget woes and debt ceilings. A quiet week on the results front with Wolseley increasing its dividend 10% and announcing a special dividend (details to follow). Tesco's 25 year record of increasing the dividend seems like a distant memory as the interim dividend was held for the second year running. James Halstead, another of the 25 year dividend champions did not disappoint with a 9.1% dividend increase. The star performer of the week was Ted Baker who surprised wth a 20% increase in the interim dividend.
Another quiet week lies ahead in the corporate world but the markets will not be quiet. Nerves will continue to be tested by the US politicians and as time goes on and the unthinkable draws nearer expect more volatility. Most commentators expect a solution to materialise, so any big drops in theory could become a buying opportunity. Difficult days ahead.
The Friday email is delivered to over 20,000 subscriber’s every week, and remains a widely read run-down of recent events and what investors can expect in the week ahead written by our chief analyst Mark Riding.
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Read next: 27 September 2013
That was a very quiet week with only three dividend declarations. AG Barr increased its interim dividend by 8%. Close Brothers increased its full year dividend by 7% and finally S & U increased its first interim by 17%. S & U are an unusual stock in that it pays three dividends annually, with two interim dividends and a final. No companies that we cover reported on Thursday or Friday. We were cautious of the market last week and still remain so. Our stance was partially vindicated by a fall of 40 points on the FTSE 100 over the week so far. But it has hardly been dramatic stuff.