The outlook for Chinese equity continues to look poor across 2010. After being one of the top performers in global equity markets across 2009, Chinese equity has failed to impress this year. The Shanghai Composite Index has fallen by nearly 10% since the beginning of 2010.

Indeed the market has now dropped to the point of reaching what is known as the “death cross”. This rarely seen technical indicator is where the 50 day moving average drops below the 200 day moving average. It is a strong indicator that a market is about to experience a strong decline.

The Long awaited decision by the European Court of Human rights has found in favour of the British Government. The Strasbourg court voted by 11 to 6 to maintain the pension freeze.

Under current rules British Pensioners retiring in Australia, Canada or Asia will find that their UK pension benefit is frozen and will not increase with inflation. This is in contrast to retirees in Europe or the USA who still receive the inflation-linked pension benefit. The decision is expected to save the UK exchequer £500 million per year.

Are you paying twice for the investments you hold?

Over the last ten years, a trend of financial packaging and repackaging has emerged. Whilst the finance industry claimed it helped lower risk and improve diversification, unfortunately for many firms, the main reason for this kind of financial engineering was to increase fees and revenues.

Following last year’s melt down of the financial system, governments, corporations and private individuals have begun to pay far more attention to the underlying investments they hold. One of the main casualties of this process is likely to be Collective Investment Funds, run by Financial Advisory Firms - so called ‘broker funds’.

More than 500,000 UK pensioners living abroad will learn on Tuesday whether they stand to receive a larger state pension, as the European Court of Human Rights announces its long-awaited judgment in a landmark case.

The decision is expected at 11:30am Strasbourg time.

At issue is whether expatriates living in such countries as Australia, South Africa, Hong Kong and Canada – who receive UK pensions after having paid National Insurance contributions while still living in Britain – are entitled to receive the same annual inflation-linked increases that are given to those still resident in the UK, as well as to British expats living in such other countries as the US and European states.