the times | Saturday November 14 2020 1GM 63
Money
What a CGT sting
could mean for you
Pages 66-67
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he development of a vaccine
for Covid-19 did not just mark
a turning point for the fight
against the virus, it also
marked a shift for the stock
market. Its announcement on Monday
led to the biggest trading day for retail
investors in history as ordinary savers
cashed in on hopes that nationwide
lockdowns would end. Stocks that had
been flying for months were suddenly
sold off while shares in leisure indus-
tries, in particular, soared.
The share price of Pfizer, the maker
of the vaccine, rose from $36.40 to
$41.92, before edging back to $37.50 on
Friday. Overall, though, healthcare
stocks, as measured by the MSCI World
Healthcare index, were down 0.6 per
cent in the first two days of the week.
Leading the way instead was the
MSCI World Energy Index, up 15.7 per
cent, followed by the financial sector,
where stocks rose 7.7 per cent. Tech
companies suffered the most as the
MSCI World Information Technology
index, which includes many of the tech
giants, lost 3.7 per cent.
Jason Hollands, from the wealth
manager Tilney, said: “What we have
seen in the past few days is a shift away
from online retailers and video-
conferencing companies, such as Ama-
zon and Zoom, which have been big
beneficiaries of the global lockdowns,
and a move into sectors such as oil,
banks and insurers, which have been
out of favour since the pandemic struck,
but which are better placed to partici-
pate in a more traditional recovery.”
Although there was substantial re-
evaluation of some stock prices it may
not be too late to invest, said Rob Burge-
man from the wealth manager Brewin
Dolphin. “This could be the beginning
of a new golden age for pharmaceutical
companies,” he said.
The Pfizer vaccine must be stored at
a very low temperature, which is likely
to make it difficult to mass produce and
distribute. It is possible that other vacci-
nes — perhaps one of those alreadyunder development or at a trial stage —
will end up being the most widely used,
so there is still everything to play for.
The strides made in antiviral vacci-
nes and a faster speed of development
has set a blueprint for research in the
sector. Burgeman believes that compa-
nies such as Astrazeneca, Glaxosmith-
kline and Novartis, the Swiss pharma
giant, could be beneficiaries.
Astrazeneca has been a key player in
the search for a vaccine and although
its shares are not cheap at about £87,
investors benefit from a dividend yield
of 2.8 per cent.
Glaxosmithkline is being restruc-
tured under its chief executive, Emma
Walmsley, and a successful revamp of
the research and development division
could bring a growth in earnings to
boost an already solid dividend. Novar-
tis is a leader in gene therapies, which
are useful in explaining why Covid-19
affects some people worse than others.
For those wanting to capture a gener-
al rise in healthcare stocks, Ryan
Hughes from the wealth manager AJ
Bell suggested the Worldwide Health-
care investment trust.
He said: “It benefits from the special-
ist knowledge which is at the heart of
the fund’s research process. Many of
the investment professionals have
experience in the industry or an aca-
demic background associated with
healthcare and it is one of the best re-
sourced organisations in this sector.”doing is preparing their portfolios for
multiple outcomes, giving themselves
some protection on the downside in
case things go wrong and leaving scope
for profit on the upside if things go well.”
Some investors may want to protect
themselves from more turmoil, partic-
ularly if confidence quickly diminishes.
Personal Assets investment trust,
managed by Sebastian Lyon at Troy,
holds a number of investments that
could do well if the market exuberance
disappears. It has nearly 10 per cent in
gold and about 40 per cent in high-
quality equities such as Unilever, Nes-
tlé and Diageo, as well as also holding
cash and bonds.
Some previously neglected areas of
the economy may suddenly fall into
favour. Schroder Global Recovery
fund prefers Europe to the US. Big posi-
tions include the miner Anglo Amer-
ican, the banking company Natwest
Group and the South Korean car man-
ufacturer Kia.
Hughes said: “If investors have confi-
dence that the vaccine brings an eco-
nomic recovery then it may pay to look
at the most beaten-up area of the
market and that has to be companies
which are very cheaply valued. This
investment approach has been about as
popular as a pariah state lately, but as
we have seen this week, companies that
fall into this category can bounce back
incredibly strongly.”
Activist investor, page 67Xtrackers MSCI World Health Care
fund is made up of more than 150 large
healthcare companies including Pfizer,
Roche and Novartis. While it loses out
on some of the niche exposure that an
actively managed fund might bring, it
costs only 0.3 per cent a year and is a
low-cost way of gaining broad exposure
to the healthcare market.
Hollands believes that a stock market
rally which, since late March, has been
driven by big tech and healthcare
stocks, will broaden out to other sectors
as confidence grows that the pandemicwill not last forever. He thinks that
investors should have the UK on their
radar because it looks very cheap com-
pared with other developed markets.
To profit from a general recovery in
the UK, he recommends Fidelity Spe-
cial Situations fund and its sister in-
vestment trust Fidelity Special Values.
He also likes JO Hambro UK Dynamic
and Jupiter Special Situations.
Russ Mould, from AJ Bell, said:
“There are still a lot of ifs, buts and
maybes to overcome with regard to the
Pfizer vaccine and the others under de-
velopment. What investors need to be15.7%
Rise in MSCI World Energy Index within
two days of the Covid-19 vaccine newsStill time for a vaccine boost
Markets surged this week on news of a Covid jab, but it is not too late to join the investment party, writes Mark Atherton
A
n archaeologist
has won £25,000
that she was
owed in state pension
after the Department
of Work and Pensions
admitted underpaying
her for 13 years (David
Byers writes).
Shelagh Hampton, 73,
is one of thousands of
divorced women who
missed out on more
than £50 a week, some
for years. These “silver
splitters” who reached
state pension age before
April 6, 2016, had
claimed a pension based
on their husband’s
national insurance
record, rather than their
own, and got a “married
women’s pension rate”
of £80.45 a week.
However, when they
divorced, they should
have become eligible for
the old full basic state
pension of £134.25 for
women born before
April 6, 1953 — an extra
£53.80 a week.
Shelagh and her ex-
husband, a university
lecturer who had a fullnational insurance
record, divorced in May
2007 after 32 years of
marriage. She was 60,
the women’s state
pension age at that time.
She only realised she
could be entitled to
more pension after
reading an article in
Times Money in 2015.
She wrote to the DWP
requesting a review and
enclosing her marriage
certificate. “I had a
letter to say that my
documents had arrived
safely,” she said. “When
I rang after a few weeks,
it said my application
had been rejected.”
She read another
report this year saying
that many women’s
claims for more money
had been wrongly
dismissed and we put
her in touch with Steve
Webb from the pensions
consultancy Lane, Clark
and Peacock, who
helped her to approach
the DWP again. This
week, she learnt that
she would get £25,412.04
in back payments.“I was told I had done
the right thing in raising
it back in 2015 and the
person I spoke to was
apologetic — he
admitted they had got it
wrong back then,” said
Shelagh, who remarried
in February 2010.
Her pension has also
gone up from £82.75 to
£136.45 a week.
Webb said: “If you
have been refused, but
think you have a case,
don’t let them fob you
off.” Official data
suggests that there
are 100,000 divorced
women over state
pension age who do not
get the old full basic
state pension.
What to do
If you reached
retirement age
before April
2016 then
divorced, contact
the DWP at gov.uk/
contact-pension-service
or call 0800 731 7898.
You will need to send
your original decree
absolute, or a certified
copy, and you and your
partner’s national
insurance numbers.I was owed £25k on
my state pension
Don’t be fobbed off by
the DWP. Thousands
of women are owed
an extra £50 a week
Shelagh Hampton first
tried to get more pension
in 2015 but was refusedThe Pfizer vaccine news boosted stocks