Ethical concerns influence investment choices

With stories about global warming, human rights and environmental concerns grabbing the media headlines, research by Alliance Trust Savings, the online sharedealing expert, reveals that one in four online sharedealers (26%) take ethical concerns into account when making their buying and selling decisions.

Alliance Trust asked nearly 1,000 online investment dealers to choose which trading approach best described them. While 51% said that financial returns are their sole concern, 26% stated they are balancing their wish to make money with their ethical views on which companies to back and which to avoid.

Claudia Philips, Managing Director of Investment Dealing at Alliance Trust Savings, comments: “Ethical and environmental issues have worked their way quickly up the UK’s agenda, both for society as a whole and for individual investors. We offer a host of stocks and shares on our online dealing platform which are currently invested in what are considered ethical stocks and we expect the appetite for this type of investment to increase over the coming years.

“Growing support for socially responsible behaviour has led many companies to reassess their impact on the world around them, and there are now many more options available for investors who would like to apply their ethical views to their investments. These range from direct equity investment and unit trusts to ISAs and specific cause-based investments supporting certain projects or schemes.”

Alliance Trust offers online share dealers a flat charge of £12.50 for each trade. Our Investment Plan lets you select from more than 3,000 UK listed securities, including equities, fixed interest securities, Open Ended Investment Companies (OEICs), unit trusts, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and AIM securities. The charges for OEICs and unit trusts are £15.00 for a purchase and £30.00 for a sale.To find out more go to: alliancetrust.co.uk/online