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The following content is sponsored by BlackRock.
In the past few years, UK stocks have traded at relatively low prices compared to other developed markets. This is mainly due to the ongoing Brexit negotiations, trade agreements and other legislative uncertainties have caused significant resistance.
Fast forward to today, and most of the uncertainty has passed. Does this mean it's time to invest in the UK?
This infographic by BlackRock covers four reasons why investors should consider allocating UK stocks.
So why should investors consider allocating UK stocks?
The UK stock market is represented by many leading multinational companies from various industries.
For example, consider the FTSE All-Share Index, which contains more than 600 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. As of March 31, 2021, 72.5% of the total revenue of these companies came from outside the UK.
A large part of overseas income provides investors with investment opportunities on a series of global themes, and the results of these themes are not affected by the British economy itself.
The confirmation of the Brexit trade agreement provides British companies with clear rules of engagement and confidence in the future.
Therefore, the UK has been rated as the most attractive place for future investment in Europe.
Based on the results of interviews with 550 executives. Source: Ernst & Young (2021)
This optimism has also spread to the UK stock market, and the number of initial public offerings (IPO) in the first half of 2021 has exceeded that of the whole of 2020.
In these 47 IPOs, there are many well-known technology companies, including Moonpig (online greeting cards), Darktrace (network security) and Deliveroo (food delivery).
The UK's venture capital sector is also booming, with US-based Sequoia Capital opening its first European office in London. Sequoia Capital is an early investor in world-class companies such as Apple, Google and Airbnb.
British companies have historically been early adopters of environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices. In fact, 45% of FTSE 100 index companies have begun to incorporate ESG indicators into their executive compensation plans.
British companies are also in a leading position in terms of gender diversity, always ahead of other developed markets.
This leadership position may further arouse interest in the UK stock market, especially as awareness of social issues continues to increase.
In a 10-year time frame, the UK's dividend rate has surpassed other global markets.
This outstanding performance continued even during the COVID-19 pandemic, when dividend yields around the world were readjusted (a term used to cut dividends).
Although these factors provide an attractive background for the UK stock market, the presence of zombie companies has dragged down the overall market performance.
A zombie company is a company that is on the verge of bankruptcy and cannot generate enough profits to repay its debts. They survived due to record low interest rates, which allowed them to continue borrowing instead of shutting down.
So how many zombie companies operate on the UK stock market?
According to British think tank Onward, about one-fifth of British companies became zombified in March 2020. Therefore, investors may find active management methods beneficial. Unlike index ETFs, actively managed funds can avoid unprofitable businesses.
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The market value of graphene in 2027 will reach US$2.8 billion. Below we introduce you the material and its various applications.
There is a new magical material in the town, and its name is graphene. Since its first successful separation in 2004, graphene has been intensively studied by materials scientists for its honeycomb two-dimensional structure and a wide range of interesting properties.
This natural and transparent 1 mm thick lattice of carbon atoms has many applications, and may even one day solve the world's water crisis.
People's confidence in this material is so strong that according to the data predicted by Fortune Business Insights, its market value will reach 2.8 billion US dollars by 2027.
In this infographic of HydroGraph, we introduced us to the fascinating world of graphene, including its characteristics, applications, history and production.
It is a single layer (single layer) of carbon atoms, tightly combined in a hexagonal honeycomb lattice. It is a component of graphite, which is made up of multiple layers of these single layers of carbon atoms superimposed on each other.
The following is a quick breakdown of its attributes:
Given that graphene is a pure carbon-based material, it may be a sustainable solution for an almost unlimited number of applications.
The future of technology is unlimited, and graphene can realize this future faster than we expected.
In the near future, here are several far-reaching inventions worth looking forward to:
A group of British researchers led by Nobel Prize winner Andre Geim has shown that graphene can be used as a proton exchange membrane in fuel cells.
This discovery surprised everyone, because no one expected that these membranes would allow protons to pass through their tight, one-atom-thick hexagonal structure. In addition, graphene membranes can be used to screen out hydrogen from the atmosphere, allowing mobile fuel cells to operate on air alone.
Graphene can help solve the world's water crisis. A membrane made of graphene can be large enough to allow water to pass through, but small enough to filter out salt. In other words, these membranes can revolutionize seawater desalination technology.
In fact, a type of graphene has been proven to be very effective in water filtration. It allows water samples from Sydney Harbour to be safe to drink after passing through the filter once.
The Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) uses "graphair" to make single-processed seawater drinkable.
Because it is almost impermeable, one day a layer of graphene-based paint can be used to eliminate corrosion and rust. This is very important because the global cost of corrosion is estimated to be US$2.5 trillion per year.
Researchers also recommend the use of glassware or copper plates coated with graphene paint as containers for highly corrosive acids.
Graphene has a variety of material advantages: it can be made into large and thin sheets; it can block ultraviolet rays; and it is impermeable to oxygen, moisture and other corrosive agents.
Researchers believe that layering on top of the artwork can prevent irreversible fading caused by light and oxidants (such as air). Their research results show that a single protective layer can avoid fading by up to 70%.
Some work needs to be done before the material is widely adopted. Before more advanced departments choose to implement it, several production issues need to be resolved.
One of the current large-scale production challenges revolves around chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Although it is the best method to produce single-layer graphene, it is not ideal in terms of scale.
These challenges also make mass production a costly affair. It costs about $100 to produce one gram of graphene. Even so, the methods used to produce graphene on a large scale produce low-quality products and release carbon into the environment.
To overcome these problems, HydroGraph has developed a process for mass production of graphene powder. Compared with other methods currently used in the market, it is environmentally conscious and efficient.
The HydroGraph process is the next step in the mass production of energy-saving, environmentally friendly and customizable graphene.
Click here to learn more about HydroGraph and its extensive product line.
From smartphones to cars and factories, the semiconductor supply chain powers our entire digital economy.
Our digitally-driven society is supported by an extremely strong semiconductor supply chain, and until the COVID-19 pandemic, not many people considered this.
However, the sudden surge in demand for digital goods, technological improvements and economic recovery has directly put pressure and focus on semiconductors.
The millions of digital devices we use, from smart phones to electric cars, computers, robotics, and the businesses they support, are all due to complex chips built on semiconductors. It is estimated that the global digital economy accounts for 22.5% of global GDP.
This chart from ASE Global highlights the complex global semiconductor supply chain that powers the modern world.
It is sometimes tricky to fully understand the importance of semiconductors to the modern world, especially when the equipment itself is so small.
But semiconductor devices-also called integrated circuits (ICs) or chips-actually contain many smaller circuits made up of millions of transistors, all packaged on a few millimeters of silicon (semiconductor).
These semiconductor devices allow electronic devices to perform calculations and, in essence, achieve functions and operations. This makes them vital to modern electronic products. Semiconductors are the world's fourth-largest traded product after crude oil, auto parts and refined oil.
The following is a breakdown of different applications of semiconductor devices by market size in 2019:
For example, modern smart phones use semiconductor devices and many different small integrated circuits to achieve different functions. For example, these modern chips can include the CPU, GPU, neural processing, and image processing cores of mobile phones.
As the recent pressures facing the automobile manufacturing industry have shown, semiconductors are even vital to automobiles. Cars are equipped with as many as 1,400 semiconductor devices that control everything from airbags to engines, while electric cars use more.
So how do these complex devices get from concept to your device?
An integrated semiconductor supply chain involving thousands of companies, millions of people, and billions of dollars. The chain can be broken down into stages that occur on a global scale, which is the well-known foundry model:
The entire process from the beginning of design and production to the integration of the final product takes months. But in the end, these manufactured chips will eventually be used in smartphones, computers, automobiles, servers, smart homes, and other technologies around the world.
In 2020, despite the economic slowdown caused by the pandemic, an estimated 1.4 trillion semiconductor chip units will be shipped globally.
These chips are manufactured by multiple types of companies occupying different parts of the supply chain. Some are household names in electronic products, while others are little-known manufacturing stage companies that are responsible for most of the world's chip consumption.
These companies operate in a foundry model, also known as fabless design. This model outsources different stages of production to specialized companies:
At the same time, there are also IDMs (Integrated Equipment Manufacturers) that design, manufacture and sell their own chips. This is the traditional model of chip development. IDMS is usually not regarded as part of the foundry model, but many IDMs now also outsource part of the production cycle.
The companies that make up the semiconductor supply chain are all over the world, from the United States to China, South Korea, Taiwan and Germany. The finished chip may contain components that have run more than 25,000 miles when the final product is integrated.
This is a complex but necessary supply chain that empowers current and future technologies. From advances in 5G and artificial intelligence to advances in smart factories and automobiles and quantum computing, companies in the semiconductor supply chain make this possible.
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