james carthewOn markets

When I last wrote this column, I said that I was feeling bearish. The falls in markets since then h...

When I last wrote this column, I said that I was feeling bearish. The falls in markets since then have thrown up some anomalies that may be worth exploring. In general, discount-control mechanisms have worked well; share buybacks have mopped up a lot of the selling pressure; and discounts have not widened as far as they would have done in a similar situation a few years ago. Most trusts reigned back gearing levels ahead of the falls but, as you would expect, there is a close correlation between the biggest fallers and those with the highest gearing. Many of these (Majedie, SVM UK Active,...