Diversification is key

The Coronavirus pandemic has highlighted more than anything the importance of having a well-diversified financial portfolio.

Overall the markets have stabilised at a reasonable level – down on where they were in February, but still reasonably solid. We are now seeing daily movements of between 1 and 1.5%, compared to nearer 2.5% when I last wrote a couple of months ago.

From time to time, there are dramatic corrections such as last week when the tech stocks fell back, but they had done abnormally well until that point.

Key UK stocks have struggled compared to other parts of the world with banks, travel and retail stocks among those worst affected. 

The final quarter of 2020 will be interesting with Brexit coming back to the fore again and the Chancellor’s Budget scheduled for November.

The pandemic has knocked Brexit off the front pages of the papers for the last few months, but that is unlikely to remain the case as the window to secure a free trade deal or leaving with no deal gets ever shorter.

Having said this, the global economy is remarkably resilient. Given how steep the fall was when the crisis began, it is quite remarkable the speed at which the recovery is now underway.