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Schroder BSC Social Impact #SBSI to consult with shareholders over whether the sub-scale £63m investment trust languishing on a 24% discount should wind up and return investors’ money. londonstockexchange.com/news-article/S…

Monks chair says #SMT stablemate will up ‘intensity’ of share buybacks that shrunk £2.4bn @bailliegifford global trust by a quarter. Aim is to trade at mid-single digit discount, half current 10% gap, making #MNKS ‘fighting fit’ to survive consolidation. londonstockexchange.com/news-article/M…

Pound tumbled & cost of government borrowing spiked after chancellor Rachel Reeves cried during PMQs. Kathleen Brooks XTB UK said, ‘the possibility of a replacement chancellor with a more left-leaning agenda … is spooking the bond market’. thetimes.com/article/eb5044…

New York buyout firm KKR trumps Boston-based private equity rival Advent with £4.7bn bid for Spectris, the British scientific testing kit maker that will be latest firm to leave London stock market. thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/…

Startling development in contraction of investment company sector as Murray Income #MUT, an £836m UK equity income trust in Aberdeen’s diminished stable, launches a strategic review complaining of disappointing performance & persistent share price discount londonstockexchange.com/news-article/M…

Launching the strategic review, Murray Income chair Peter Tait says he welcomes proposals for #MUT from Aberdeen, other management groups & investment companies. Perhaps a merger with stablemates Dunedin Income Growth #DIG &/or Shires #SHRS is looming? londonstockexchange.com/news-article/M…

It’s less than 5yrs since Murray Income #MUT was riding high on the merger with rival Perpetual Income. Since then it has fallen close to the bottom of its sector (only Finsbury Growth does worse) with 40.5% 5yr shareholder return to 31 May that lagged the FTSE All Share’s 69%.

Gresham House Energy Storage Fund signs floor agreements with renewable energy group Statkraft & US insurer Markel Bermuda to provide minimum £35m contracted revenue in next 10yrs, enabling board to announce new dividend policy once #GRID refinances. londonstockexchange.com/news-article/G…

JPMorgan Global Growth & Income lifts 1/4ly dividends +0.9% to 5.75p or 23p for 2026 financial yr despite assets -3.1% in LTM. Policy of paying out 4% of assets could have seen distribution fall but with #JGGI slipping behind #IGET it didn’t want an upset. londonstockexchange.com/news-article/J…

Gavin Lumsden Yet another one bites the dust. This appears to be the most common way of getting UK listed equities valued correctly. Depressing.

John Waldron, president ⁦Goldman Sachs⁩, tells ⁦The Times and The Sunday Times⁩ the US economy was ‘surprisingly resilient’ in spite of Trump tariffs after data showing 147,000 new jobs were created in June, well above expectations for 110,000. thetimes.com/article/7b46c8…

BlackRock, Schroders & Fidelity were among fund managers that snapped up UK government bonds during Wednesday’s sell-off helping their prices and yields to recover yesterday after the PM said the chancellor had his ‘full backing’. thetimes.com/article/12fbec…

Kallum Pickering ⁦Peel Hunt Research⁩ tells ⁦The Telegraph⁩ more tax rises by chancellor would mean Bank of England ‘could go even further with rate cuts than it currently indicates’. Markets expect 3 cuts by next April to take base rate from 4.25% to 3.5% telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/…

Paul Johnson, the outgoing head ⁦Institute for Fiscal Studies⁩, told the BBC that chancellor Rachel Reeves would have to look at lifting the three big taxes — ­income tax, national insurance and VAT — if the hole in the public finances turned out to be as big as £30bn. thetimes.com/article/9466ce…

‘Boosterish’ confidence in US stocks began to return on 9 April, says ⁦The Times and The Sunday Times⁩, when Trump announced 3mth delay on all tariffs, except China. Since then S&P 500 +26%, helping US index to overtake Europe’s Stoxx 600, +7% ytd vs +6.5% for Stoxx 600 thetimes.com/article/3732b8…

Discounts of UK investment companies are narrowing, says Trust Watch Citywire. Ex 3i Group, the average share price stood 13.8% < asset value on Thursday vs 14.7% 2wks ago. No trusts are on -2 or lower 1yr Z-score, the level analysts consider ‘cheap’.  citywire.com/investment-tru…

Private investors ‘buying the dip’ in US stocks this year have racked up the biggest profits since early stages of the Covid-19 crisis, says Financial Times.

British Business Bank chief Louise Taylor says ministers would not need to force pension funds to invest in UK assets if they understood the ‘goldmine of opportunity’ in private UK companies, says The Times and The Sunday Times. thetimes.com/article/c30601…

‘when the Bank is trying to ease monetary conditions by cutting [interest] rates, QT [quantitative tightening or selling gilts bought in 2008] could be diluting [the impact] … by tightening monetary conditions,’ says Sonali Punjabi ⁦Bank of America⁩ thetimes.com/article/8f3c88…

Air cargo rates from south-east Asia to the US surge 11% as companies scramble to beat Donald Trump’s 9 July tariffs deadline, says ⁦The Telegraph⁩. telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/…