Where to next for the markets?
Press Release from Expat Pensions LLP
You would be well worth your much-maligned bonus if you were a stockbroker or a financial adviser who could predict where the stock markets are going next, according to Steve Griffin, the partner responsible for France at Expat Pensions LLP.
“The London Stock Market has climbed back to 5,000 plus from a low towards 3600 as short a time ago as early March, but it in recent days it seems to have stalled.
“Is this just the markets catching their breath and some profit taking by those who have done well in the past three months, or have we found a plateau that seems to be a natural level?”
He added that it was his belief that all the bad news in Europe had not been shaken out yet. “When the US Government stress tested its banks, what is not commonly known is that they did not include overseas branches or divisions.
“With some of the EU statistics looking quite alarming, such as Spain’s unemployment rate of 17 per cent, there is a growing suspicion that many EU governments have taken an ‘ostrich with its head in the sand’ approach to their problems.
He said that this was why many observers believed that there is a very strong case for looking at investing in structured funds.
A structured fund is a fund that combines both equity and fixed-income products to provide investors with a degree of both capital protection and capital appreciation. These funds use fixed-income securities to give the fund capital protection through principal repayment along with the added gain of interest payments.
“If there is a chance, and I believe it may well be the case, that the markets have reached a plateau, then the attractiveness of structured funds is considerably enhanced,” said Steve Griffin.
“With so much political uncertainty in the air, not only in the UK but also throughout Europe, many investors are looking for a safe home for their money while the markets take a step back and a breather, if that is what we are seeing.”
For further information, please contact:
Steve Griffin, Partner,
Expat Pensions LLP in France
0033 457 19 91 80
steve@expatpensions.eu
