Russ Mould is AJ Bell's Investment Director. He has a Master's degree in Modern History from the University of Oxford and more than 30 years' experience of the capital markets.
He started out at Scottish Equitable in 1991 as a fund manager, where he had responsibility for the Nordic and Swiss equity markets. In 1993, Russ joined SG Warburg, now part of UBS investment bank, and worked there as an equity analyst covering the technology sectors for 12 years. He has also worked on IPOs and M&A deals. Russ was voted best analyst in the semiconductor sector in 2001 by Institutional Investor and reached the level of Managing Director in 2003 when he became head of UBS' global semiconductor research effort.
A member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (MSCI), Russ is responsible for providing written and video content for customers and clients. He also helps to build the company’s profile in print and broadcast media as part of AJ Bell's wider PR and brand team, working alongside the Investment Committee.
Russ joined Shares Magazine as technology correspondent in 2005 and took on the post of Editor in 2008. He was appointed as AJ Bell's Investment Director in 2013 following the company's acquisition of Shares' parent company, MSM Media. Russ regularly creates content across the AJ Bell website, including the Daily Market Update and Chart of the Week, and he hosts his own 'Breaking the Mould' weekly video series.
Outside of work, Russ is a qualified cricket coach, Italian speaker and avid fan of Doctor Who and NFL.
7 April 2021
FTSE 100 Dividend tap being turned back onCurrent consensus forecasts show that the FTSE 100 is set to deliver its first year of dividend growth since 2018 this year, with a £74.3 billion payout enough to equate to a yield of 3.8%. That compares to a payout of £61.4 billion for last year which, if confirmed by company announcements, would be the lowest figure for the FTSE 100 since 2013.
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10 March 2021
Is the share buyback back in fashion?The announcement this week of share buybacks by Balfour Beatty and Domino’s Pizza, as well as plans for such a scheme at Gamesys and intentions to ask for shareholders’ permission to buy back stock at IP Group, all suggest that this way of return capital to shareholders is back in fashion.
Shareholders must now decide whether this is a sign that...
9 March 2021
Investors still preferring jam today to jam tomorrow as the Dow outperforms the NASDAQAmerica’s Dow Jones Industrials set a new intra-day record high on Monday while the NASDAQ Composite slid into correction territory, just over 10% below its mid-February closing peak, to once more raise the issue of whether investors are now preferring ‘value’ stocks – which potentially offer rapid growth today – over ‘growth’ names, which are...
5 March 2021
Is Deliveroo turning up just as the IPO market turns down?The bears may now be marching two by two toward Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovations Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), which is down by 20% from its highs, and those who are looking sceptically at global stocks will be also be growling a bit more loudly about initial public offerings (IPOs) and market newcomers.
This makes the timing of the Hill Review...
1 March 2021
FTSE 100 dividends paid and restored now exceed value of cuts since the pandemic beganLily James, Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes may be gripping the nation in the Netflix film The Dig, but it is treasure of a different kind that is keeping investors interested in the UK stock market, after a bumper month for dividend payments in February.
Payment declarations came to £14.6 billion, while a further £5.2 billion worth of dividends...
23 February 2021
‘Value’ continues to outperform ‘growth’ as NASDAQ stumblesThe NASDAQ Composite’s second worst daily decline of the year, and its third one-day slide of more than 2%, may be a further sign that investors’ love affair with technology stocks is just cooling a little as they look for ways to play a post-pandemic upturn.
Gathering concern over inflation, as wage growth accelerates, commodity prices surge and...
16 February 2021
Can the miners dig the FTSE 100 out of its dividend hole?A 55% hike in BHP’s first-half dividend and the restoration of payments to shareholders at Glencore are putting welcome cash back into the kitty for investors in the UK stock market. The miners’ dividends will help to fill the large hole left by BP and Shell in particular and increases from the diggers underpin consensus forecasts for an increase...
11 February 2021
All eyes on dividend payments as Big Five Banks prepare to report their resultsUnchanged or increased payments from Smurfit Kappa, CCH, AstraZeneca and RELX in the past week mean FTSE 100 firms have declared dividends worth £5.2 billion in February, more than offsetting the £2.5 billion of cuts announced by BP and Shell. That provides some welcome relief to income-seekers and sets the scene for the Big Five banks, the first...
10 February 2021
Market trends after one year of COVID are clear but Pfizer Monday changed them allIt seems remarkable now just how relaxed financial markets were during the early stages of the covid-19 outbreak in Asia and even Italy, but confidence ebbed rapidly from late February onwards once they grasped the gravity of the situation. Share prices plunged for a month and even though some found their footing, plenty of others in the worst...
8 February 2021
The Super Bowl Rule: Will Buccaneers’ win signal in fresh surge in US stocks?Gamblers who sided with the favoured Kansas City Chiefs will have lost their money as the defending champions lost the fifty-fifth Super Bowl to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their quarterback Tom Brady, the most successful player in the National Football League’s history.
But stock market investors may be pleased to see Brady grab an unprecedented...
