So begins the start of a week of business reopening and lockdown relaxing in earnest! How will it all pan out?
Well we are finally here, the chance for many businesses to begin the long haul to hopeful recovery, whilst schools start to re-open in a limited fashion. Is it the right time or just a bit too soon? Well only time will tell and I hope that the timing is perfect, even if the science appears not to be.
Before I summarise the investment situation from my own perspective, I would draw your attention to the link at the bottom of this blog, which shows a chart of how various investment sectors have been performing right up to and including the last month. You will see that it is broadly encouraging, with only the commercial property sector lagging behind, which is not unusual at the height of a business downturn (and a lockdown is a downturn with bells on!). As things re-open I would hope for a recovery within values in this sector also, although we will also need to see how the size and shape of business premises requirements change, if at all.
I brought you some positive news from Prudential in relation to the Prufund the other day and expect to hear further good news with regard to the Prufund Growth Fund prices when the review comes around for this fund. Generally things have recovered well within investment circles (in some cases very well), in spite of the clear issues which have and will continue to face us for some time to come.
We currently have extremely low interest rates, with further falls anticipated (not good for deposit savings and we are seeing this with further rate reductions on savings accounts and Cash ISAs‘) and so the tendency is to move one’s savings into areas with greater investment risk. My advice remains to proceed with caution for now on this front; if you are in areas with more investment risk, then as long as you feel you have a balanced amount of investment within these areas for the medium term, that should be fine; however, to place further funds into areas of risk, at a time when uncertainty reigns on several fronts, may not be such a timely thing to do.
It is important to bear in mind that, by moving funds into areas of even limited risk, the upside on offer presently may not be as great as the downside and by deferring a decision for even one month, you may lose 1% or so of growth on your savings (in a cautious investment), but at least you can enter the sector with a better perspective of what is happening….For share and higher risk investments, well these are completely different animals, in that the opportunity does exist to make good gains presently, but the risks are clear.
So to summarise; riots in the US, hoards of people at the seaside and beauty spots in the UK and the overhanging question of what the West may now do with regard to it’s reliance on China; but still the investment markets creep forward!
It’s a crazy time and trying to rationalise it is not great for the head, but hopefully the next few weeks will see us ease through without any setbacks and we can start to perceive a clearer path for ourselves, our investments and, most importantly, our lives and sanity (as for World politics, well let’s just leave that to the politicians to wrestle with!).
https://www.trustnet.com/fund/sectors/performance?universe=O