Prospects start to look up for equities

By Nigel Lanning, UK fund manager at Dresdner RCM. The UK market moved higher in October, with...

By Nigel Lanning, UK fund manager at Dresdner RCM. The UK market moved higher in October, with the FTSE All-Share up 3.2%, following the loss of 9.4% in September. This recovery was largely down to strong weighted performances from the banks, media, photo-graphy and telecom services sectors. In comparison, long gilts returned 5.8% in October, outperforming all the equity total return indices in the UK, with the exception of the UK Small Cap, which rose 7.1% over the month. Investors could therefore be forgiven for thinking that, while a modest recovery in equity markets appears to b...