Investor confidence in FTSE and in overseas markets for 2011

A client poll conducted by Barclays Stockbrokers, the UK's largest online execution-only stockbroker, has found that the majority of investors (53%) have a bullish outlook for the FTSE in 2011, and are confident that the FTSE will rally - compared with the 44% of investors when asked at the beginning of last year (January 2010). Just one fifth of investors (18%) are bearish in their outlook, and say they are not confident about FTSE performance in 2011.  The research also revealed that a third of those surveyed (29%) are still undecided on their outlook for 2011.

However, a separate poll found that investors are even more confident in returns from overseas equity markets in 2011 than from the domestic market. Barclays Stockbrokers found three quarters (76%) of clients believe the best returns will be found overseas.

Whilst one quarter (24%) of respondents believe the UK will deliver the best returns next year, over half of respondents (52%) favour emerging markets, a fifth (18%) back the US, and 6% favour Europe.

Paul Inkster, Head of Product at Barclays Stockbrokers, said: "As we kick-off 2011, it is interesting to see that while the majority of Barclays Stockbrokers clients believe that the FTSE will rally during the course of the year, a growing number are even more confident in overseas markets. These results support what we are increasingly hearing from clients regarding their appetite to increase the global diversification within their investment portfolios."