InvestmentsAug 3 2016

Investor confidence at significant low post-Brexit

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Investor confidence at significant low post-Brexit

A report released by IW Capital today (3 August) has revealed investor confidence is at a significant low following the UK’s decision to leave the European Union on 24 June this year.

The survey, which interviewed 2,000 UK adults and 1,000 British investors found that 58 per cent of those interviewed were not confident they understand the implications of Brexit on investment strategy, whilst 52 per cent were not confident they understood the implications of Brexit on pensions.

For the same question but posed on the impact on their tax bill, 55 per cent said they were not confident what that would be.

Elsewhere, 55 per cent of investors said they did not understand the implications of Brexit on the long-term prospects of the FTSE, 52 per cent said they did not understand the implications on the property market and 49 per cent on the future value of the pound.

IW Capital also asked investors if they would consider supporting small and medium enterprises through private investment channels in the aftermath of Brexit, with 52 per cent of all investors stating they would.

A total of 70 per cent of investors aged 18-34 said they would back SMEs, whilst 68 per cent of investors in London said they would, constituting the highest proportion of any region.

A total of 58 per cent of male investors said they would support this sector.

Yesterday (2 August), FTAdviser’s sister publication Investment Adviser reported UK retail investors withdrew a huge £3.5bn from funds during June as concerns over the EU referendum confirmed 2016 as one of the toughest environments on record for asset managers.

Retail investors withdrew some £2.8bn from equity funds during a month which was dominated by the vote on 23 June, according to figures from the Investment Association.

The Property sector, which saw mass withdrawals from a number of funds and their subsequent suspension of trading at the start of July, suffered some £1.4bn of net outflows.

Alan Solomons, director of London-based Alpha Investments and Financial Planning said: “This is a report aimed at highlighting the crowd funding business of IWE. The reality is that sterling went down which boosted the potential profits of the larger companies who had overseas earnings which would be recorded in sterling as being more due to the weakening pound.

“Small companies on the London Stock Exchange took a pounding as it was rightly perceived that they would not as a whole benefit from falling sterling as imports would cost more and their sales would be predominantly UK.

“What the general public knows about investing is not worth the paper it is written on unfortunately.”

ruth.gillbe@ft.com