With the market winding down I have had the time to write a response to HM Treasury’s public consultation on the PRIIPs regulations. They include the requirement for KIDs (Key Information Documents) which I now completely ignore because there are better sources of the required information on funds and trusts.
My consultation response is present here: https://www.roliscon.com/PRIIPS-Consultation-Response.pdf . I agreed with most of the recommendations.
There is a complementary consultation on the “Future Disclosure Framework” from the FCA which I may or may not get around to over the holiday period.
The UK stock market has just closed for Christmas. If there was a “Santa Claus” rally it was barely perceptible in my portfolio. There was a minor hiccup after the announcement that there will be a court hearing next April to determine whether BHP Group should face a trial over the damn burst in Brazil many years ago.
There are 400,000 Brazilian claimants and it will be the largest group litigation in English civil court history if the case proceeds. BHP said: “BHP fully refutes the claims made by the English plaintiffs and will continue to defend itself in the case, which we believe is unnecessary as it duplicates issues already covered by the existing and ongoing work of the Renova Foundation — under the supervision of the Brazilian courts — or are objects of legal proceedings in progress in Brazil”. Looks like a beanfeast for lawyers that will run for years.
As a holder of BHP shares I doubt BHP will have a problem with this lawsuit so I will continue to hold until more information comes to light.
I will probably give a full analysis of my stock market portfolio later in the New Year as I do a calendar year analysis and it takes me some time to do a full analysis.
I look forward to the New Year with my usual perennial optimism and I hope my readers have a good Xmas.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson )
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