Market Update Week to 17 April

As you would expect when trying to manage through a global pandemic like coronavirus, there are a lot of positive and negative reports that create volatility in global equity markets and last week was no exception. After sharp falls were experienced earlier in the week following a report by the International Monetary Fund on the global economic impact, markets rallied at the end of the week on a report that a COVID-19 treatment showed promise and some European countries and parts of the United States were easing lockdowns to begin reopening parts of the economy.

Weekly performance up April month-to-date

to 17 April 2020 performance up to

17 April 2020

FTSE 100 (UK) -1.0% +2.0%

Dow 30 (US) +2.2% +10.6%

Euro Stoxx 50 (Europe) -0.2% +3.6%

Nikkei 225 (Japan) +2.0% +5.2%

In terms of £ Sterling, it closed the week (to 17 April), at 1.25 US Dollars, which was 0.4% higher than the figure at the end of the previous week (10 April).

Against the Euro, £ Sterling closed on 17 April at 1.15 Euros, which was 0.9% higher than the closing figure on 10 April.

There were no updated inflation figures, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH). It was 1.7% in February 2020 (this is February’s data which is reported in March). This was 0.1% lower than the previous month. The 12-month rate for the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rate which excludes owner occupied housing costs and council tax was also 1.7% in February, also down from 1.8% in January.

There were no further changes to the Bank of England base rate last week following the two previous cuts in March. The current rate remains at 0.1%.

The Omnis Managed funds, Openwork Graphene Model Portfolios and Omnis Managed Portfolio Service provide you with a diversified asset allocation in line with your Attitude to Risk, investing in Developed Market Equities, such as UK, US, Europe and Asia Pacific as well as Emerging Market equities. Cautious and Balanced investors will also have significant holdings in UK and Global Bonds, as well as Alternative Strategies.

We believe this multi-asset approach aims to minimise global equity market falls in volatile periods.