Small Cap Value Report (Thurs 4 March 2021) - K3C
Morning, it's Jack here starting off Thursday's SCVR. Do leave a comment if anything catches your eye. So yesterday was The Budget: the furlough scheme has been extended until September; fuel has been frozen again and the stamp duty holiday has also been extended. Meanwhile, corporation tax will increase from 19% to 25% from April 2023 for companies earning more than £250,000 a year. Pension tax relief, annual and lifetime allowances, IHT rates and CGT remain unchanged for private investors. Mortgage guarantees up to 95% looks like it could inflate house prices even further (and the ratio of house prices to average earnings is already stretched). There’s also much-needed help for the hospitality and arts sectors. Longer term, there’s no getting away from the debt that COVID has created. We’ll need to address that with tax rises, spending cuts and borrowing at some point but politicians and central banks are adept at kicking the can down the road. Rising rates would be a real concern. In the short term though, things are looking up. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts a ‘swifter and more sustained recovery’ than what was expected last November and is penciling in economic growth...