Investors rush in as markets fall

* Barclays Stockbrokers clients equity orders increased by 16.78% as markets fell

When the FTSE dropped over 200 points on Thursday 26 July, rather than rushing to get out of the market many investors saw it as an opportunity to buy. Barclays Stockbrokers experienced a 16.78% increase in overall equity orders, with buy orders up 18.55% compared to the previous day. When the FTSE then dropped again on Wednesday 1 August, this also caused orders to increase by 8.95% with buy orders making up 63% of the orders executed on the Brokerage platform. Amy Nauiokas, MD and Head of Barclays Stockbrokers says: “Our clients have clearly seen this as an opportunity to capitalise on the price of the FTSE and get in while it’s cheap. We have seen investors becoming increasingly savvy about their investments and taking things into their own hands when making investment decisions.”

Henk Potts, Equity Strategist, Barclays Stockbrokers: “The art of successful investment is to buy the market when it is weak and cheap not strong and expensive. A mixture of robust economic growth, cheap valuations and high dividend payouts should generate positive returns for investors in UK equity markets. We recommend that investors stick to companies that have strong, reliable earning streams in defensive sectors. Our favourite sectors are Financials, Mobile Telecoms and Pharmaceuticals. We are cautious on Retail, Leisure, Industrials, Media and Fixed-Line Telecoms.”