The FTSE 100 index is up just shy of 12 per cent over the past year, and ahead of the US and European indices this year to date.
Tom Moore, who runs the Aberdeen Equity Income Investment Trust, confesses to being a little surprised at how well the market is doing.
He says: “The economic data wouldn’t point to it. And when we speak with company management in the UK, they are very pessimistic; they were more optimistic in 2019, even with all of the Brexit stuff happening, than they are now.”
But he adds that while the economy does not justify the improved outlook, his view is that structural factors may mean inflows have come into the asset class for the first time, even if it is only because institutional investors have stopped selling.
Moore says: “The data shows that in 1995 [so 30 years ago] UK pension funds and insurance companies owned about 50 per cent of the UK equity market, the figure is now about 5 per cent, but…
