The small lift in confidence in February was entirely down to the sunshine anomaly factor which is somewhat fickle. The sun shone in February above the norm for this time of the year pushing its score up from -5 to -2. However, all of the other factors remained doggedly on the lowest level they could possibly score.
| Investors Chronicle Confidence Index | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Month | February | January | December |
| Index value | -27 | -29 | -29 |
There is no doubting the fact that sunny days do perk people up but perhaps UK investors are becoming more sanguine during the long, dark, drab and wet days of winter. Or could the reason for the latest stock market rise be put down to investors simply anticipating spring is just around the corner. Whatever, it is unusual for the market to push confidence up rather than the other way round which is what happened last week. Both the UK and the US stock markets took off and the Dow even recorded an all-time high. The cause of this stimulus was triggered off by bullish economic news coming out of China and the US. Furthermore investors anticipated that there would be more cash available to invest if the major central banks continue with easing measures.
If the stock markets continue to rise during March then it will almost certainly push confidence up with it. It is also encouraging to note that the 12-month moving average for our index is also turning up.
Moving average on the rise
Source: Investors chronicle
