6 Apr 2021
It was an amiable quarter in the equity markets, despite some warnings of bubbles and the occasional bankruptcy. The FTSE rose by 4.1%, the All Share by 4.5% and the domestic orientated FTSE 250 by 5.2%. Year on year, it looks like boom time because the end of March in 2020 was more or less the bottom of the market. A salutary reminder, in case we needed one, that stock markets try to discount news as quickly as possible. Once the pandemic and the lockdown measures had sunk in, it was panic by sundown.
With this flattering point of comparison, the FTSE rose by 18.8% over twelve months, the All Share by 23.8%% and the FTSE 250 by a drool-making 43.3%.
Bond markets were stirred from their seemingly endless slumber. Those terrible twins of inflation and currency debasement might be intruding into investors’ thoughts. US 10 year Treasury yields popped from 0.9% to 1.7% over the quarter. UK gilt yields rose from 0.2% to 0.8% – not exactly a compelling offer but a serious price move. German yields “rose” from -0.57% to -0.32%.
It seems that people are beginning to believe in the vast libraries of money that central banks are printing. They expect recoveries in spending and government-inspired investment and equities are the obvious way to play the trend. If your portfolio performed disappointingly in the quarter it’s probably because you owned sensible shares that survived and prospered in lockdown. Sentiment began to move in favour of “reopening stocks” though most of the reopening that we have seen so far has come from a few US States dubbed by President Biden as “Neanderthal”.
So far, the throwbacks appear to be doing rather well. As we said, stock markets try to discount news as quickly as possible, even if it’s good.