Ruffer's Steve Russell and Hamish Baillie have revealed they remain cautious on equity market valuations, questioning the sustainability of recent gains.

London-based stockbroker JNF Capital is launching an asset management arm, Atlas JNF Asset Management, offering hedge-fund style strategies to retail investors.

UK markets have fallen this morning following the surprise announcement yesterday by the European Central Bank (ECB) that interest rates would be cut to 0.25%, and the shock downgrade of France's credit rating.

The Bank of England's (BoE) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has voted to maintain UK interest rates at their historic low of 0.5%.

The Henderson UK Equity Income fund - run by James Henderson - has changed its name and objective as part of an overhaul of the fund which removes its need to chase high yielding stocks.

BP and Royal Dutch Shell produced mixed results last week, but top managers are returning to the beaten-up oil majors, predicting a focus on shareholder returns instead of "growth at any cost".

Smith & Williamson Investment Management has merged its UK Growth fund and its Opportunities fund into the group's UK Equity Growth trust.

Barclays is to cut around 450 jobs in the UK, including a third of its private bankers.

Tim Guinness, chairman and CIO of Guinness Asset Management, said natural gas is an excellent buying opportunity after a dramatic fall in value caused by the US' recent move into shale gas.

Invesco Perpetual has implemented a dilution adjustment to the price of Neil Woodford's Income and High Income funds, moving to bid pricing on both portfolios after a recent surge in outflows.