Good morning and welcome to your Morning Briefing for Wednesday 30 July 2025. To get this in your inbox every morning click here.
UK investors predict defence to outpace AI as top growth sector for rest of 2025
UK retail investors believe that defence will outperform all other sectors including artificial intelligence over the next six months.
This is according to biannual sentiment tracker from investing and trading platform IG. This is the first time defence has taken the top spot on the sentiment tracker with AI now slipping to second place.
Ian Jensen-Humphreys: Tariff breathing room brings protection strategies to the fore
Equity markets seem to have consigned April’s tariff-induced sell-off to the rearview mirror, writes Ian Jensen-Humphreys portfolio manager at Quilter.
Over the past few weeks, there has been some breathing room and markets have rebounded strongly amid more benign news flow, resilient macroeconomic data and solid company earnings.
What president Donald Trump decides to do next with regards to tariffs will ultimately dictate market moves, but for now deadline extensions appear to be the choice of the president.
This has given portfolio managers some breathing space to review allocations and positioning, in particular risk mitigation or downside protection strategies.
Rathbones sees profits before tax drop and net outflows increase in H1 2025
Rathbones H1 2025 interim results has seen its profits before tax drop and net outflows increase compared to the same period last year.
The results released today (30 July) showed its profits before tax dropped to £62.3m from £65.3m whilst its outflows increased to £1bn, up from £0.6bn in 2024 H1.
Quote Of The Day
The prognosis for GSK is looking positive. It hasn’t let itself get too distracted by tariff uncertainty, with both second-quarter sales and earnings coming in ahead of market forecasts
– Hargreaves Lansdown head of equity research Derren Nathan on GSK second-quarter sales rising 6% to £8bn when ignoring currency impacts
Stat Attack
Research from Franklin Templeton reveals the sentiment of UK independent financial advisers (IFAs) towards US equities.
64%
of IFAs have been advising their clients to either maintain (50%) or increase (14%) their allocations to US equities.
45%
currently allocate 10% to 25% of their clients’ portfolios to US equities.
36%
said they are allocating more than 25% to US equities.
60%
changed their strategies in response to the impact of the US tariffs.
40%
of IFAs said the tariffs have not influenced how they currently manage assets for their clients.
Source: Franklin Templeton
In Other News
Aviva Investors has revamped its range of three Retirement Income Model Portfolios (MPS).
Aviva Investors launched its first model portfolio service back in 2022, built in partnership with SimplyBiz, to feature in SimplyBiz’s Risk Controlled Workflow. The MPS has been revised to benefit from the expertise Aviva Investors has in managing institutional workplace pension strategies.
Aviva said: “With significant investment and income challenges affecting clients in retirement, including longevity and sequencing risk, the Retirement Income Portfolios seek to address both of these issues.”
The new MPS will have three portfolio options, which are:
- AI Retirement Income Portfolio I (Lowest risk)
- AI Retirement Income Portfolio II (Medium risk)
- AI Retirement Income Portfolio III (Highest risk)
All three portfolio options will be carefully constructed from a range of global assets, with the objective of maximising the long-term income generation for investors. These portfolios are available across all tax wrappers, and will initially be available on the Aviva Platform.
The Retirement Income Model Portfolios will be managed by Aviva Investors’ Multi-asset team who have over 50 years’ experience managing multi-asset solutions. The Portfolios remain part of SimplyBiz’s Risk Controlled Workflow, though will also be available to advisers who utilise Defaqto Engage, with other risk profilers to follow.
Evidence-based investing pioneer Sparrows Capital has announced an enhancement to its Sparrows SCore MPS Market range, providing financial advisers with “even greater flexibility to align portfolios with their clients’ diverse investment needs”.
The expanded range of model portfolios now offers equity allocations in 10% increments, from 0% up to 100% equity. This enhancement broadens the spectrum of available risk profiles, enabling advisers to achieve “greater suitability and flexibility across various client goals and risk appetites”.
The Sparrows SCore MPS Market range continues to offer OCFs ranging from 0.09% to 0.12% and capped at £20 per client on certain platforms.
US, China tariff truce holds for now but US says Trump has final say (Reuters)
Revolut weighs buying US bank to get licence (Financial Times)
FTSE 100 Live: UK stocks poised to hold near record (Bloomberg)
Did You See?
Consolidation in the financial advice sector shows no sign of slowing. We’ve seen a surge in M&A activity across the UK, with private equity firms fuelling a wave of acquisitions and valuations reaching historic highs, writes Succession Wealth CEO Roger Marsden.
For every successful acquisition, there are others that fall short, where cultural clashes, adviser departures and client disruption unravel the very value the deal was meant to create.
The hard truth is that buying a business is easy; integrating it well is the real challenge.
With more than 65 acquisitions behind us, we have developed a clear understanding of what successful integration looks like. That experience has shaped a repeatable model for acquiring and integrating advice firms, one that protects what matters most: clients, people and culture.
We’re proud of the progress this approach has delivered, and equally clear about the responsibility it carries. Integration isn’t a tick-box exercise; it’s a long-term commitment. And in today’s market, that’s what separates sustainable success from short-lived headlines.
