Market Commentary

By and large August was a good – but unexciting – month for the major world stock markets we cover in this commentary. There were no dramatic gains – Hong Kong was the star performer with a rise of 5% – and two or three markets did their best to do nothing at all, but there were no major falls. Despite bad news (again) about the slowdown in the Chinese economy, August was almost a month where the ‘steady as you go’ mantra applied everywhere.

When we left you last month the UK had just voted for Brexit. David Cameron had announced his decision to resign and a contest for the leadership of the Conservative Party – and the keys to 10 Downing Street – was under way.

This time last month David Cameron was firmly in place as UK Prime Minister, facing the equally secure Jeremy Corbyn across the despatch box.

May was the month when you could be forgiven that there was only one event in the world that mattered: the continuing debate on the UK’s membership of the EU.

The tax affairs of the rich and powerful came under scrutiny in April, with a huge leak of confidential documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonsceca.

Another month, another dire warning from the economic great and good. In March it was the IMF’s turn to warn ‘economic derailment.’

February was another month where the problem for this commentary was what to leave out: the world is not short of ‘events’ at the moment.

Like a row of bottles, the world’s stock markets fell one by one – with one defiant exception among the twelve that we cover this month.

December saw an interest rate rise in the US, the UK vote for air strikes against IS and George Osborne’s ‘Northern Powerhouse’ largely under water.