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Opinion

Sentiment risk to defensives

Sentiment risk to defensives
July 30, 2012
Sentiment risk to defensives

I say this because sentiment towards equities is now very depressed. A good gauge of this is the ratio of the Aim index to the All-Share, which is now close to its lowest level for over three years. Such a low level of the Aim is a sign that investors have little appetite for smaller, speculative and unfamiliar stocks, which is an indicator of pessimism and risk aversion.

And here's the thing. This ratio has some power to predict returns not just upon Aim shares but on some mainline ones as well.

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