Investing in individual shares conveys more danger than other trading asset classes. It may be because the shares conceivably offer more significant yields. Most famous shares are usually updated weekly. The stock market’s tendency implies that there are continually intriguing developments going on consistently. This is creating boundless opportunities for the investors to create positive returns. Since there are tons of companies today, it can sometimes be difficult to decide which are the best shares to purchase.

Top Shares To Buy Right Now UK

Below is a quick-fire list of some of the top shares to buy right now UK. If you'd prefer to purchase any of these shares right now, eToro is a good option to consider as you’ll need not pay any commissions and you can create an account in minutes. 

1. Tesla (TSLA)

Our top pick in the securities exchange right presently is Tesla. Tesla was perhaps the most sizzling stock for 2020. Numerous financial backers and individuals trust the company and buy Tesla stock due to the popularity of Elon Musk. Today, Tesla is experiencing strong sales growth. The electric vehicle creator's offer cost was up over 600% because of an assortment of components. 

2. HSBC (HSBC)

HSBC has had an all-over-year. HSBC is a bank with a tremendous presence in Asia. It is still making a good presence in the UK and other countries.

3. Facebook (NASDAQ: FB)

Facebook shares are down almost 7% throughout the most recent 5 days. The organisation reported that a change to Apple's security strategy would affect its advertisement business. This implies that genuine transformations, like deals and application innovations, are conceivably higher than whatever Facebook is reporting to its clients.

4. DISNEY (NYSE: DIS)

The Walt Disney Company, or Disney, is a worldwide entertainment organisation whose scope extends a long way past ‘The Happiest Place on Earth' at Disneyland. In addition to the 12 Disneyland Theme Parks, it works well throughout the planet. But lately, it has forcefully ventured into different areas of entertainment.

 5. ZOOM (NASDAQ: ZM)

If you hadn't found out about Zoom before the Coronavirus pandemic, we're willing to be that you have now. This cloud-based video conferencing software turned out to be incredibly famous during lockdown throughout the world.

6. Unilever (ULVR)

Interestingly, Unilever is a famous consumer goods company. It owns many famous brands such as Lipton, Magnum, Dove, etc. For some time, it has been promoted as a safe stock due to the consistent popularity of the company's products. Generally speaking, Unilever would be a decent purchase right currently because of its low cost and alluring profit yield.

Conclusion

Determining the top shares to buy right now UK isn’t pretty much as simple as reading an article. In reality, investors must initially understand what they look for from their investment portfolio before they even think about investing a dollar in a single stock.

The move marks the first international of PayPal’s crypto product, which was first launched last October in the US. Its crypto feature allows customers to buy or sell bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum, or litecoin with just £1. Additionally, customers are also able to track real-time crypto prices and access educational content on the market. 

The extension of the service to the UK will rely on the New York regulated digital currency company Paxos and PayPal has confirmed that it has engaged with all relevant British regulators to launch its crypto service. 

Despite ongoing concerns regarding crypto’s volatility, consumer protection and the potential for money laundering issues, many major companies including Tesla, Mastercard, and Facebook have been opening up to crypto in recent months. PayPal is one of the many large finance firms choosing to embrace the unregulated world of crypto. The move by the online payments giants comes as Bitcoin hit $50,000 on Sunday, reaching a more than 3-month high. 

Following other big tech firms such as Baidu and Bilibili, Xpeng is the latest Chinese company to list on the Hong Kong stock exchange. The electric car manufacturer is already listed on Nasdaq and is rapidly becoming a strong rival to Tesla in China. 

Xpeng raised HK$14 billion ($1.8 billion) in its initial public offering ahead of the start of trade on Wednesday. The company issued 85 million Class A ordinary shares at HK$165 ($21.20) each. Its shares traded approximately 1.8% higher on opening. The IPO comes as Chinese firms are put under pressure to list closer to home. Recently, Chinese transport company DiDi fell under scrutiny over data security when it listed overseas. 

Xpeng’s performance has improved considerably over the years, having previously proposed, and been rejected for, a merger with another struggling electric car manufacturer Nio. In its US IPO last year, Xpeng raised $1.5 billion and in the fiscal year 2020, and delivered over 27,000 vehicles to consumers. If successful, Xpeng’s performance in Hong Kong could facilitate similar moves by other electric vehicles companies.

Bitcoin saw an 11% price increase after Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated that his company will start accepting bitcoin once miners begin to use cleaner energy. Turning to Twitter, Musk said: “When there’s confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with a positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions.”

Back in February, Tesla revealed that it had bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin and stated that it would accept the cryptocurrency on its cars. But, by last month, Tesla did a U-turn, announcing that its vehicles could no longer be purchased using the digital currency. Tesla said this was due to bitcoin’s increasing use of fossil fuels for its mining. The announcement resulted in the cryptocurrency crashing. 

Analysis by Cambridge University suggests bitcoin currently uses more electricity annually than the whole of Argentina. The mining process to create new units of bitcoin involves solving complex mathematical equations, which is reliant on high levels of computer processing power. Many critics believe that there is no such thing as “green bitcoin” as miners will always opt for the cheapest option to maximise their returns. However, others believe that institutional investors can lead bitcoin down a more environmentally sustainable path. Yves Bennaïm, the founder of non-profit Swiss think tank 2B4CH, has argued that as big investors like Tesla boost digital currency prices, there’ll be a greater incentive for investments in renewable energy sources. 

Big news in early January was a Porsche Taycan knocking off nearly an hour from Tesla’s record for driving an Electric Vehicle (EV) across the USA in just 44 hours and 26 minutes. Most people think Tesla will soon be back on top, perhaps by using a new 600-mile range, fast-charging battery (which could be a possible option costing a paltry $180,000 when you spec your new car); or, it might be some new producer that takes the Cannonball Trophy.

A few weeks ago I wrote in my market commentary, The Morning Porridge, about the 120-160 new Electric Vehicle companies feeding the frenzy in the EV sector. (No one is quite sure how many are genuine…) All of them are making grand promises about why their tech is better, how they are going to revolutionise the sector, and presenting vaguely sketched plans to achieve profitability by selling 5 million units by 2025.

That’s unlikely to happen.

As we transition from conventional Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), EV demand might hit 12-15 million electric vehicles by 2025 and maybe 25 million by 2030. Yet, the current market valuation of these 120+ speculative EV startups is around $300 billion – which is an awful lot of money someone is going to lose when it becomes clear that, no matter how marvellous and inventive they are, there just won’t be a big enough market for them to deliver into.

Many of these new firms contain the kernel of a brilliant idea. They could revolutionise all kinds of things we didn’t realise we needed until they invented them. Supporters will say: “These aren’t auto companies, they are creating new energy/autonomous driving/tech opportunities….”.  The reality, however, is that the whole startup EV sector looks like a massive tech-struck speculative bubble.

But the EV is here to stay.

Tesla deserves the credit for starting the revolution and has reaped the rewards. Its stock currently trades somewhere north of unbelievable and is likely to go even higher (all the way to absolutely ridiculous). Some analysts see it going even higher, as it expands its footprint to make and sell cars in China. There will soon be a Berlin factory to supply Europe. It may also finally deliver on promises to expand production from 499,000 vehicles in 2020 towards maybe 5 million in a few years. (Few being a random number between 3 and 30.)

There is plenty of evidence to suggest that keeping a standard ICE engine and planting a tree every time you fill the tank is a better route to achieving carbon neutrality than buying a Tesla.

Does it matter how many cars Tesla sells? The reality is that the company doesn’t make a brass cent of profit from selling cars – its sparse profits have all come from the sale of regulatory credits. That has not deterred all these new entrants to the market who intend to compete with it. They are riding a tidal wave of new technologies and innovations aimed at overcoming the critical issues with EV: the high costs of batteries, limited range, lack of charging infrastructure, and the time it takes to recharge.

Battery makers are some of the most inventive people on earth, filing more patents than just about any other tech sector. New, bigger, faster batteries will be one way to go – except that demand for lithium is going through the roof, casting doubt on the future of EVs if the batteries become prohibitively expensive. The sector is founded on the belief that widespread adoption will cause the cost of batteries to fall – ignoring the reality that lithium is a very scarce resource.

To solve the range and cost conundrum, a Chinese EV maker has had a great idea: sell cars without batteries and switch in a new fully charged unit at any conventional petrol station. There are new lithium-ion phosphate batteries that work and charge faster at high temperatures. Neither of these will solve the cost problem. Fortunately, there are carbon-ion batteries on the horizon that will charge fast, are solid-state with limitless life, and are cleantech, but they aren’t energy-dense (i.e. range) yet.

There are other, deeper issues to resolve. There are the social implications of EVs, (the “S” in ESG), including mining (child labour, exploitation of poor countries, and environmental degradation), the longevity of batteries (they just don’t last long and most won’t go more than 100,000 miles), and the difficulties and pollution problems connected to recycling them.

There are also doubts that EVs are the right way to address the “E” (Environment) in ESG. Potential customers looking to go green may conclude that more efficient hydrocarbon ICE engines, or hydrogen fuel-cell cars (in the future) are cheaper and better for the planet in the long run. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that keeping a standard ICE engine and planting a tree every time you fill the tank is a better route to achieving carbon neutrality than buying a Tesla.

However, the real winners in the EV space could very well be very automakers that Tesla set out to replace – the existing big firms. Tesla was founded in 2003 and it took years for the big firms to perceive and recognise the scale of the threat. (Musk bought his way into the firm in 2004 with a $6.5 million series A investment – a trade that’s made him the richest man on the planet… that’s genius.)

All the big automakers are now wide awake to the EV threat. The A-Z of makers, from Alfa Romeo to Volvo are all planning EV launches. These firms have a pedigree going back a century or more. They have the weight and heft, plus the networks and infrastructure to design, built, market and sale new EVs… if only they could get it right.

That’s what’s been proving difficult.

Tesla’s great success comes from its fundamental advantage – it was never a conventional carmaker. It wasn’t burdened by the baggage of years of building ICE engines, conventional drive trains, engineers opining on how many cylinders it will require to make it go faster, and cost accountants who understood the input and output costs of their industry.

All the big automakers are now wide awake to the EV threat. The A-Z of makers, from Alfa Romeo to Volvo are all planning EV launches.

Tesla started with a clean sheet, reimagined the car and electric engine, the potential of software and upgrades, and designed everything else around that. Everything that’s followed has been incredible. Some of it has debatable provenance - myths created around the brand including the new religion that Musk is a tech messiah and inventive genius. It’s simple - a car, an electric engine and a battery.

Tesla rode its own wave as demand was stoked by the environmental proposition, conveniently ignoring the pollution and recycling issues, and subsidy from the government. The image has been polished by the narrative that it's not a car company – instead, it's about energy, data, batteries, autonomous driving, etc. The final stroke of genius was to market it by closing the marketing department and nurturing fans prepared to big up Tesla on social media and day-trading investment sites.

In contrast, the big auto firms have moved at glacial speed; tripping over their internal ICE bureaucracy and making some terrible mistakes. They are still designing EVs as if they are conventional cars. After being caught falsifying emissions, VW has staked its future on EVs, but their ID.3 offering is lacklustre, dull and can’t yet be updated over the net. The Porsche Taycan struggles in performance terms versus the cheaper and older Tesla.

One of the funniest things I’ve read recently is “Renaulution” – the plans of Luca de Meo, CEO of French carmaker Renault, to turn around the producer of perhaps the world’s least desirable cars by becoming Europe’s leader in EVs. He plans to move Renault from “a car company working with tech to a tech company working with cars”.  It’s announced grand but probably empty statements full of corporate verbiage such as “the brand will embody modernity, and innovation within and beyond the automotive industry in energy, tech and mobility services...” I didn’t bother to read further because Musk has already said it. Better, clearer and his firm has delivered.

But and here is the nub… VW got it wrong with its first EV. I bet the coming ID.4 will be much, much better. The firm has learnt that the EV paradigm shift pioneered by Tesla is about the cloud, software and apps just as much as getting the tech right. BMW’s new iX can only be described as “fugly”, but it’s got range, it’s lightweight, it’s fast and has cachet because it’s a BMW.

In the next few years, most of the old auto firms will have played catch-up and will be offering cars the public wants to buy. They will offer lots of options, have the service and networks to follow up, and they will also be able to offer alternatives like hybrids which may be ultimately better options. They will have learnt how to adapt – meaning if hydrogen ever becomes a realistic option, they can move fast. And in the meantime, they will be eating Tesla’s lunch. They will take EVs up the evolutionary road to the same stage ICE cars are… commodities.

For full disclosure: because of the range, recycling and battery life issues, I’m thinking about buying a plug-in hybrid Land Rover to replace our ageing Fiat Roller-Skate (which in 10 years has done 6000 miles of to-the-shops and back.)

Good tech firms rise because they create new value. 15 years ago, Amazon was a mystery – what was the point in a delivery company not making any money? Apple was building a niche with new gizmos like the iPod, while Facebook was one of many banal social media sites we could hook up on. Uber and AirBnB didn’t exist. If you wanted to watch a film before the video was released, you went to Blockbuster.

Now, these same tech firms are worth trillions – because they created entirely new markets and new revenue streams. They carry substantial growth premia: Facebook consumed its rivals while its targeted advertising becomes more sophisticated allowing it to rake in money. Apple has become the most valuable company on the planet – by creating an ecosystem of IOS addicts to buy its constantly upgraded models that haven’t innovated anything fundamentally new in 10 years. Amazon is indispensable as the place stuff comes from. Google is successfully monetising every aspect of our lives. And Netflix…Netflix is an outlier. It’s great. My family couldn’t live without it – anything is better than watching the BBC news. Although Netflix invented the concept of a streaming service, it’s now just one among many. When Disney launched its streaming service in 2019, it was able to attract more subscribers faster – because streaming demands great content. If you want great content, Disney has it in spades. Netflix invented streaming, but Disney will dominate.

Generally, the success of companies that innovate new markets underlies their initial success. It also causes hype – when every investor thinks every new exciting tech launch is going to replicate the success of Amazon or Apple, it’s wise to remember tulip markets and step back and consider. This year’s big story has been ZOOM – worth billions because everyone on the planet suddenly learnt it exists and started using videoconferencing.

Or how about the blowout record-making IPO success of Snowflake – the cloud-computing solutions provider? Snowflake competes in a very crowded market. Its rivals have been making very healthy billion-dollar profits for a number of years. One firm, 40-year old Teradata, makes $2 bn revenues from its cloud activities and is valued at $2.5 bn. But brand-new Snowflake makes $250 million revenues, runs at a loss and is worth $80 billion – despite doing essentially the same thing as profitable Teradata. But Snowflake is new – and investors seem to be believing the old market lie: “this one is different”.

Tesla is a bubble. But it's one that, thus far, hasn’t popped.

Nothing illustrates the hopes and expectations that drive tech stocks as well as Tesla. It’s a fascinating company. It has created an entirely new market in electric vehicles, and it also dominates the battery tech. It is successfully making and selling cars and setting the market’s agenda.

There are two different views on Tesla:

There is the “you don’t understand” perspective favoured by the Tesla fan-club. They have some good points. They stress Tesla is a long-term play on the future not just of cars, but everything about capacitance (batteries), personal transport and power. It’s created and taken leadership of the expanding non-ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) market. It’s got proven battery technology and it’s collected massive amounts of data that will enable to lead autonomous driving – enabling Tesla owners to run their precious cars as self-driving taxis when they aren’t using them. The Tesla fans say the traditional financial markets don’t understand what massive future value the firm has created.

The market clearly believes in Tesla. It’s worth over $400 bn dollars despite making less than $1 bn profit in the last 12 months (the first time it’s ever posted an annual profit). While most car companies trade on modest single-digit multiples, the market clearly believes in Tesla’s exceptionalism at a plus 400 multiple.

Even though it produces less than 0.5% of global auto sales, Tesla is worth 2.5 times as much as Toyota which builds over 10% of the world’s cars, each year posting healthy profits of $23 bn on 10 times multiple. The big three US auto companies make 18 million cars per annum and post profits most years.

The unbelievers say Tesla’s minuscule profits after 10 years of developing their car model means it’s just a small niche player. They say it’s too reliant on selling carbon-regulatory certificates – every car it sells is sold at a loss. Ferrari makes 23% margin on each car while Tesla loses money. Naysayers don’t believe the hype around batteries – pointing our newer, cleaner battery tech, which can charge in seconds, will make every Tesla obsolete overnight; sometime in the future. They say Tesla’s batteries, actually made by Panasonic, won’t set the industry standard. The Chinese are saying they already have million-mile batteries, and although Tesla got a Chinese factory up and running in record time, the Chinese are outselling it.

Even sceptical financial analysts accept that Tesla makes good cars, but they believe that it needs to massively increase its margin per car and increase production at least 10 times to justify a stock price even half of its current value. In short - Tesla is a bubble. But it's one that, thus far, hasn’t popped.

But it will.

What’s driven Tesla to such stratospheric values is a result of some extraordinary factors. Founder Elon Musk is regarded by fans as a far-sighted prophet of genius. To detractors, he’s an arrogant market manipulator, hypester and snake-oil purveyor. Musk attracts the hopes and dreams of retail investors who are jumping on board the Tesla party bus. Good luck to them.

The main issue Tesla fans are missing is the same thing that is going to test Netflix and a host of other overpriced tech stocks: Competition.

Every other automaker gets what Tesla is doing. So far no one is doing it better. Someday, very soon, someone is going to launch something better. It might not be anything like Tesla, or it might just be much, much less hyped.

It would seem that the dawn of the electric car is finally upon us, with the Tesla Model 3 recording the third biggest number of UK registrations in August.

Figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show that the model muscled its way into the top 3 with 2,082 units registered in that month.

Well, it’s fair to say that more than a pinch of salt is required when assessing the reasons behind such a sudden ascent.

On the face of it, the model’s growing popularity surpassed that of household models including the Ford Focus, the Vauxhall Corsa and the Mercedes-Benz A-Class, with only the Ford Fiesta and the Volkswagen Golf having more registrations in the month.

For a car that only began production in 2017, it’s an impressive effort. Furthermore, it would seem that the rise of the Model 3 has had an impressive impact on EV registrations overall, with sales of battery electric cars almost doubling year on year in the 12 months to August, from 9,000 in 2018 to 17,393 this year.

So, has the electric dream finally been realised and should you now be considering EVs for your next car? Have you got that salt handy?

As ever, it’s all about context. The current trials and tribulations faced by the motor sector have been well documented and it’s perhaps here where the real reasons for the Model 3’s impressive August SMMT figures lie.

The numbers show that the market as a whole saw new registrations dip by 1.6% to 92,573 in August. However, the context to bear in mind here is that August is traditionally a quiet month for registrations as the market’s emphasis shifts to the new September number plate. However, that doesn’t account for the 1,500 fewer registrations in August compared to the same month last year.

So how is Tesla bucking the trend? Has the EV manufacturer weathered the choppy seas of negative PR, only to be welcomed onto dry land to a cacophony of positive headlines?

Not quite. Those journalists perceptive enough to understand how registrations work and the delays that have dogged the production of the Tesla Model 3 have a slightly different take.

The model is perhaps making up for lost time. James Baggot, founder of Car Dealer Magazine, put it best when he said: “It’s worth noting that the SMMT registration figures relate to cars registered, not sold, in the month. Most Tesla Model 3 buyers put down their deposits years ago, so this is simply Tesla finally delivering a car they promised back in 2016.

“This was effectively the first full month of deliveries for the Model 3 in the UK. It has also caused an abnormal blip in the SMMT stats – electric cars are up considerably, but it’s unlikely to be something that will continue.”

So, with current market conditions perhaps flattering the Model 3’s perceived popularity in August, we may have to wait a little longer until the electric revolution is truly upon us. And, of-course, while pure-electric sales are on the up, they only represent a tiny 1.1% minority of annual car sales.

Owning a vehicle one genuinely wants to drive is frequently a fantasy for some. Extraordinary Cars was built up to assist those fantasies to work out as expected. Since its beginning in 2003, exoticcars.ae have been leaders in the UAE in the business of fresh out of the box new just as pre-owned cars, having a place with extravagance, sports and colorful classes.

However, it can be said that the industry has made huge strides in 2019. Car makers are now beginning to catch up as the pressure to move away from fossil fuels continues to mount, suggesting that prices for electric cars could also begin to fall.

Jaguar’s I-Pace sports utility vehicle won the world car of the year award this year, Nissan is finally beginning to talk about its new EV cross-over following the huge success of the Leaf, BMW has high hopes for its new electric Mini, while Volkswagen has been spotted testing its all-electric ID 4 SUV, one of the first EV’s in its much talked about ID series.

With Government emission targets not going away, the pressure on the industry remains. It will be interesting to see whether Tesla can stay in the headlines, for the right reasons.

Car manufacturer Tesla held a special event on Thursday evening in Los Angeles where they released 2 new electric vehicles to the market. Images of the new Tesla Roadster can be seen here.

As expected, the first of these vehicles was their new articulated lorry.  The second however was the more surprising given that there were no rumours leading up to the event of the supercar they unveiled; the new Tesla Roadster.

This new supercar has been deemed the fastest production car to date, which Elon Musk described as “a hardcore smackdown to gasoline cars”.

Everything about this car looks incredible, right down to the way they presented it. In a very nice touch they drove it out the back of one of their new lorry’s.

The statistics of the car matched the spectacular presentation as well. The baseline stats are as follows:

• 0-60mph in 1.9 seconds
• 0-100mph in 4.2 seconds
• 9 seconds for a quarter mile
• Top speed of 250mph +
• 620 mile range on a single charge

The good news isn’t limited to the looks and the stats, as pricing for the car is not that expensive considering it’s faster than any other car on the market today and looks stunning too. Sales will start in 2020 at £151,600 ($200,000) which is a great deal cheaper than a Bugatti Chiron coming in at £1.8 million ($2.5 million).

In the typical Elon Musk spirit, Tesla was offering rides to anyone who put down a $50,000 deposit on their new Roadster, and as you can imagine a number of fans have already taken him up on the offer.

As mentioned, the new Roadster was not the only electric vehicle they introduced at the event. A new articulated lorry was also unveiled, which sets an entirely new standard for the industry. The lorry has been dubbed the “Tesla semi”.

It features an array of awesome features that have never before been seen on a lorry, among these are the thermonuclear explosion proof glass, lane keeping technology, advanced autopilot and a design that makes jack-knifing “impossible”.

Although these features are advanced for technology seen in a lorry, the speed is not something that can go un-mentioned either. The statistics are as follows:

• 0-60mph in 5 seconds
• 0-60mph at maximum weight in 20 seconds
• 500 mile range at highway speed with maximum weight

The production of the Tesla Semi will start in 2019, a year before the production for the Roadster begins.

With these 2 unveilings however, one major question arises; do they have the infrastructure to keep up with demand despite their previous production issues?

Interactive Investor, the online investment platform, has recently released its clients’ most traded investments, by number of trades, in September 2017.

Commenting on the results, Lee Wild, Head of Equity Strategy at Interactive Investor, said: “It was all about inflation, interest rates and tapering during September, so little wonder central banks dominated proceedings. US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen, who’ll begin slowly winding down the Fed’s $4.5 trillion balance sheet this month, prepped markets for a rate hike in December then another three in 2018.  Not to be left out, Bank of England governor Mark Carney turned hawk as inflation hit 2.9%, confirming that a first increase in UK borrowing costs for over a decade just got a whole lot closer.

“The obvious benefits of higher interest rates had the British pound up as much as 5% against the dollar and at a post-EU referendum high. Rate rises are typically good news for the banking sector, with lenders quicker to raise borrowing costs than they are to offer better deals to savers. It may not be great for consumers, but an improvement in bank margins should feed through to shareholders by way of bigger profits and dividends.

“It’s why investors’ favourite Lloyds Banking Group rallied 6% in September and remained the most popular blue-chip stock on the Interactive Investor platform last month. Vodafone blasted back into the Top Five. Apple’s launch of the iPhone 8 should get the tills ringing, and the fastest growing broadband operator in Europe offers an irresistible dividend yield of over 6%.

“As one would expect, there was plenty of excitement on AIM. Online fashion retailer Boohoo.com is a member of AIM’s exclusive ten-bagger club, but the shares are hardly cheap, so tweaking margin guidance lower in its half-year results gave traders a scare. So did joint-CEO Carol Kane’s decision to sell £10.7 million of Boohoo shares in the aftermath.

“However, a 25% plunge in the share price always looked harsh given aggressive growth forecasts. It’s why trading volume more than tripled in September and buyers outnumbered sellers two-to-one.

More spectacular, however, was the explosion in activity at Frontera Resources. There are 13.4 billion shares in issue worth less than a penny each, but the £100 million company is no tiddler. Frontera’s liquidity, typified by tight spreads, volatility and an intriguing story make it a firm favourite among small-cap investors. At the beginning of September, the shares were worth just 0.1125p, but before the month was out it was 0.782p, an increase of 595%.

“There’s real excitement around Frontera’s Ud-2 well in Georgia because it sits in the Mtsare Khevi gas complex, where experts estimate a potential recoverable resource of 5.8 trillion cubic feet of gas. Following a series of progress reports, the number of trades on the Interactive Investor platform swelled twelvefold in September versus the previous month.”

Rebecca O’Keeffe, Head of Investment at Interactive Investor, adds: “Yet again, the big active funds of Fundsmith Equity, Woodford Income and Lindsell Train Global occupy the top three spots, with our investors continuing to prefer active management in the current environment. With currencies driving markets and sector moves more pronounced, there is greater potential for active managers to add value.

“Although the top three are all active, passive funds remain relatively popular and Vanguard 100 muscled its way back into the Top Five, knocking out Jupiter India in the process. Vanguard have taken over as the preferred option for many clients, with 15 Vanguard funds in the Top 100 most bought funds year-to-date. The compound effect of lower fees is significant and over the long term this can add tens of thousands to your portfolio value, making low-cost tracker funds highly attractive for investors.”

(Source: Interactive Investor)

Everyone’s been saying for quite a while now that drones are going to take over, the technology will be used for flying cars and we’ll be delivering almost everything via drone, but is that really the case or are we too excited to see the obstacles ahead? William Sachiti, The Academy of Robotics explains to Finance Monthly that there is a more realistic perspective.

Drones are the future of home delivery! Or at least that is what I used to believe. They appear to be an efficient means of transporting items from one location to another. My mind ran wild, picturing a drone superhighway! I was keen to establish a dedicated airspace for drones to self-navigate, and to deliver packages to customers.

But… and there is a big but. Such a big one, I no longer believe drones are the future. The issue is not technical – it is social.

The Social challenges

The more I researched, I began to realise the safety defects of a cluttered airspace, peppered with flying machines, often controlled by amateur operators. Not to mention the cost of achieving this drone superhighway in the sky.

These issues have already been encountered by Amazon, which is currently leading the way with drone delivery. For example, the retail giant must house drones near to population centres in order to be more efficient than road-based delivery.

Now imagine your neighbour’s daily impulse-buys being delivered by a very loud drone, the novelty would fade fast. Imagine the sound of a washing machine spinner at full-belt during unpredictable hours of the day, waking up your kids and spooking your spaniel. Take it a step further and imagine living near a big retailer’s drone delivery centre. The noise and intrusion could be worse than living under the Heathrow flight path.

I had initially overlooked our roads – thinking of them as ‘the past’ and drones as ‘the future’ – but I no longer believe that to be the case. Ultimately, road-based delivery using driverless vehicles is far safer, quieter and more cost effective than the seemingly futuristic, yet comparably less-practical drone courier services.  It is easy to forget that we haven’t fully tapped the potential of our road networks – public, unmarked and residential. And autonomous vehicles present the opportunity to tap into and make better use of the infrastructure we already have.

So what form will deliveries of the future take?

Judging by early designs and models, autonomous delivery vehicles, will take diverse forms.

Italy’s Piaggio Fast Forward - a subsidiary of Vespa manufacturers, Piaggio - has invented a cylindrical luggage compartment capable of tailing its owner by a few metres, while holding up to 18km of cargo.  This clearly shows the value of wheels on the road.

Mole Solutions is ignoring both road and air for something completely different: below-ground freight capsules. Thrown into the delivery mix, such an invention could help to reduce road (and air) traffic congestion, as well as keeping out of sight.

Pelipod on the other hand, is seeking to cater specifically to businesses that need efficient, secure and direct delivery. Bypassing post offices, courier firms and depots, the firm is pioneering delivery pods that will travel straight to the destination. Integrated electronic systems will grant access to only authorised users, and provide proof of delivery.

And Kar-Go, the driverless delivery vehicle from my own Academy of Robotics, will autonomously navigate unmarked roads such as residential areas, and use an intelligent package management system to deliver packages to retail customers, day or night.

So, road vehicles will still be the primary force for delivering packages but they’ll come in all shapes and sizes.

Delivery beyond the physical

Looking beyond the first incarnations of autonomous vehicles and towards the far-future of delivery, I believe product delivery will be digital. Driverless vehicles, and smart devices in general, will benefit from 5G mobile technology. With so many devices feeding data into the Internet of Things (IoT), devices are able to communicate and act in unison.  Autonomous vehicles for instance, will be able to communicate with one another, and other road users.

Let’s put digital delivery into context. 25 years ago, the only way to send a document to someone was to have it physically delivered. With a little help from technology, the same document could, just a few years later, be sent via fax; scattered into bits of information, sent across the world and re-assembled in a matter of minutes.

As technology improved, sending a document moved from minutes, to seconds to an instant. So, if delivery of physical goods continues to incrementally improve over time, it’s not unrealistic to imagine that your latest smartphone could one day not be physically sent to you at all.

Instead, it could be purchased via a digital download and, through some 3D printer/fax machine-hybrid, be re-assembled in your living room. Of course, we can’t expect to see such an invention anytime soon. Technological advancements – despite accelerations in the digital age – are gradual.

And finally

With giants like Google, Tesla and Uber counted among the early adopters of self-driving cars, you can bet that the overwhelming majority of future vehicles, whether transporting people or packages, will be driverless.

When consumers are ordering compost from the garden centre, supermarket groceries or pretty much anything from the online superstores, you can bet that, regardless off the type of delivery vehicle, the driver will be digital.

Results from the second quarter of a year-long research study reveal how investors view the performance of a range of different players in the autonomous vehicle (AV) market, providing for each firm, the percentage of investors who judge that company as ranking in the top five for having the most investible Autonomous Vehicle technology.

Manufacturers

In the survey, conducted by international law firm Gowling WLG and economic research agency Explain the Market, Tesla (26%) topped the charts when it comes to investor confidence in AV manufacturers - closely followed by BMW (22%).

IT giants

For the world's biggest IT companies, investors ranked Google (35%) as the business with the highest potential for success in the AVmarket. This is markedly higher than other giant brands which investors feel are yet to make an impact - notably Baidu (2%), Uber (8%) and Apple (11%).

Tech brands

The survey also reveals Bosch (54%), Tata Elixsi (36%) and ParkWhiz (29%) as the most investible tech brands in the AV tech sector, according to UK investors.

Guy Shone, CEO Explain the Market said "When it comes to driverless tech UK investors are showing a deeper level of interest and a stronger commitment than ever before"

Stuart Young, partner and head of Automotive at Gowling WLG said: "When it comes to the AV sector - research shows UK investors are backing innovation from a wide range of sources. UK Investors clearly have confidence in both the old and the new, the big and the small. They are tracking the best ideas and conditions whether they come from start-ups or corporate giants."

Since the survey's Q1 results, there have been some subtle shifts in investor mood regarding the barriers towards widespread AV introduction. Whilst concerns about unclear rules and regulations have slightly diminished, doubts about a lack of collaboration between industry and government appear to be increasing.

The progress of smart cities projects is also an increasingly important factor to investors when it comes to making a decision to invest in the AV market.

As our economy enters a new period of instability, the importance of monitoring investor attitudes increases. This is the second wave of a year-long study of over 1,000 investors. The ongoing tracker study will track the confidence, attitudes and opinions of UK investors to the AV sector and reveal what investors really want as the sector develops. The study will also probe the real barriers and factors that impact confidence.

(Source: Gowling WLG)

Silicon Valley's Tesla overtook GM as the most valuable carmaker in the United States last week said Toronto Sumitomo Trading International.

Modern technology is working its way into our lives and infiltrating every aspect of our daily routines, automobile industry is no exception, the increased reliance on software and renewable energy paved the way for Tesla to climb to the top of the industry and claim the title, the biggest carmaker in the United States by market capitalization.

Tesla's stock price hit 312.39 dollars Toronto Sumitomo Trading International analysts upgraded its stock from neutral to overweight and upgraded the price target. Tesla's stock price jumped to all-time highs increasing 3.26% from the previous week's close.

"The company now is valued at 50.887 billion dollars beating GM by one million dollars, something will lead to an interesting discussion when the two Chief Executive Officers meet at the white house with president Trump to discuss the tax reforms and infra structure" said Daniel Holland, Director of Corporate Equities at Toronto Sumitomo Trading International.

Toronto Sumitomo Trading International Research showed that considering the number of cars Tesla sold last year, its market capitalization now will be equivalent to 667,000 dollars for each car sold, or looking forward it will 102,000 dollars for every car Musk plans to sell in 2018. On the other hand, GM's market capitalization is equivalent to 5,000 dollars for each car sold in 2016. This offers a great insight into consumer trust in technology.

Tesla's stock price has increased by 35% over the last month aided by investors' trust in Elon Musk's plans to revolutionize both the energy and the automobile industries. Meanwhile, General Motors' stock price has been declining in the past few years.

Tesla's advocates believe the lose making company's price is justifiable based on long-term outlook, arguing its acquisition of SolarCity and building the new battery cell plant will drive production costs lower.

"Tesla's valuation as a car company is unrealistic, but if we look at it as a battery company which can expand and innovate, the valuation might work" said Michael Hudson, Head of Mergers and Acquisitions at Toronto Sumitomo Trading International.

Many skeptics believe that Tesla is overvalued and its highly inflated stock price has made it a target for short sellers who bagged a valuation loss of 2 billion dollars so far in their portfolios.

(Source: Toronto Sumitomo Trading International)