Investors continue to seek opportunities from market volatilty

Last week was a turbulent time for anyone invested in markets, with the FTSE suffering its worst fall in four years on Thursday and then leaping back up again on Friday.

However, Barclays Stockbrokers has continued to see investors spotting opportunities amongst the turmoil. Instead of rushing out of the markets, experienced investors are taking the opportunity to buy; on Friday 58% of orders executed by Barclays Stockbrokers were buys. Post the weekend, investors were even more bullish with thousands of trades executed via Barclays Stockbrokers within the first 15 minutes of Monday’s market open, 74% of which were buys.

Amy Nauiokas, MD and Head of Barclays Stockbrokers says: “With the FTSE leaping up again on Friday, our clients have clearly seen this as an opportunity to get back into the market. Throughout the last few weeks of market volatility, we have seen our clients taking advantage of these ups and downs by adding real value to their portfolios. Throughout the next few weeks it will be interesting to see how investors continue to react to these volatile conditions.”

Henk Potts, Equity Strategist, Barclays Stockbrokers: “It’s good to see that investors can see through the cloud of uncertainty that has enveloped the stock market over the last few weeks. Successful equity investment has always been about fighting through short term volatility to take advantage of long term out performance. Stock markets have beaten every other asset class, over any reasonable time horizon, during the last century. Long term investors always win through in the end.”