Is it too late to get on the stock-market bandwagon? Last March the end of the financial world was nigh, according to economists and investment experts. Apparently it wasn’t and since then the FTSE has rocketed 50%, hitting a new post-crisis high above 5300 last week. The rally was first powered by sheer relief, but its continuation has confounded some and made smart money for others. One obvious fuel has been the slump in interest rates and the lack of attractive alternatives for cash.
The massive injections of printed money into the US and UK economies may or may not have ensured recovery, but meantime they have certainly related confidence and share prices.
But where is the market going next? ………………………………
……Not all the experts have been bullish, according to research carried out at the end of August among 180 financial advisers. Almost 60% said they did not believe a bull market was under way, 47% said investors were over-exposed to UK shares, and only 5% said a lasting bull run was possible.
But Alan Steel, principal of Alan Steel Asset Management at Linlithgow, told The Herald in mid-June, when the rally looked as though it might peter out: “The next move will be sharply up.” The firm seeks out the cream of the market’s managers, such as those at Jupiter Financials, First State Asia Pacific and Neptune US Opportunities. Steel says “These guys are not ‘absolute return’ managers, they have just made really good choices. We spend a lot of time trying to find them.”
Quote courtesy of The Sunday Herald
15 November 2009
