Global Equity funds were the biggest winner, with net retail sales of £1.7billion, but UK All Companies funds continued to struggle ahead of the Brexit deal.
Expect plenty for Tesco shareholders to chew over in this week’s trading update after a baptism of fire for boss Ken Murphy, who had to contend with last-minute Covid restrictions during his first Christmas in charge.
The good news is that Britain’s biggest retailer will likely report stonking sales – thanks in part to the shutdown of restaurants driving shoppers to supermarkets.
However, the lack of festive get-togethers and the latest lockdown is hurting Tesco’s Booker division, which supplies caterers. Any indications of annual profits will be examined after Tesco agreed last month to repay £585 million in business rates relief to the Government.
Happy new year, happy new lockdown.
2021 has seen off 2020, but schools and large chunks of the economy have shut down again and people have been ordered to stay at home, as across the UK the nations adopt their own version of lockdown.
It’s probably been the gloomiest start to a year for as long as many can remember and a tough winter for people, businesses and the economy lies ahead.
So what happened? The UK stock market jumped, of course.
Contrary as this may seem, there is some logic to investors buying into the hope that better times lie ahead.
Making predictions can be a mug’s game and never has that proved more true than for any made at the start of 2020.
It’s been an astonishing year, when the lives and freedoms we took for granted were dramatically disrupted – and one where ordering people to stay at home triggered the biggest economic crash in the UK since the Great Frost of 1709.
While looking forward to what might happen in 2020 will have proved fruitless, looking back certainly provides a few things to talk about.
On this week’s podcast, Georgie Frost, Lee Boyce and Simon Lambert look back over 2020 and by popular podcast listener demand combine it with the return of a socially-distanced Zoom Christmas taste test.
Is buy now, pay later the demon it’s made out to be?
Klarna, Laybuy and the rest of the delayed spending crew are coming in for lots of scrutiny at the moment.
Shoppers love them and shops pay them, but there are concerns on over-spending and the cost of not meeting payments.
Yet, surely spreading the cost of a purchase interest-free is a sensible financial move?
On this week’s podcast, Georgie Frost, Lee Boyce and Simon Lambert discuss the rise of the buy now, pay later firms, how they work, how they make their money on interest-free credit, and why there are worries over what on the surface looks like a great deal.