Desensitised investors immune to London attacks

insurance/portfolio-manager/director/

8 July 2005
| By Zoe Fielding |

Investors are too desensitised to terrorism for yesterday’s attacks on London to have any major impact on investment markets, according to industry participants.

Lonsdale Securities general manager research, Grant Kennaway, expected some short-term volatility in the markets, but said once the initial shock was over people would return to investment fundamentals.

“People have expectations that these events are going to occur so I don’t think it has quite the same shock value as it did pre-September 11,” he said.

Platinum Asset Management’s European fund portfolio manager, Toby Harrop, said terrorism was now an ongoing fact of life especially for major financial centres like London, and such risks were already priced in. He said while there was some confusion in the markets last night they had already largely recovered.

Ixis Asset Management director Denis Carroll said: “Ten years ago we would have said ‘gloom and doom’, but I actually think people are becoming a little bit desensitised to terrorist bombings.

“From an Australian perspective, there’s a question about when’s our turn, but in terms of the markets themselves, there may be some short-term blip on the screen but I don’t think there would be much suggestion that there would be any seismic shift in investment patterns because of it,” he said.

Insurance company QBE this morning issued a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange saying that from an insurance perspective, incurred losses from the event would be relatively small and “well within our substantial allowances for large losses and catastrophes”.

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest news and developments in wealth management industry

MARKET INSIGHTS

So we are now underwriting criminal scams?...

2 months 2 weeks ago

Glad to see the back of you Steve. You made financial more expensive, not more affordable as you claim, and presided ...

2 months 2 weeks ago

Completely agree Peter. The definition of 'significant change is circumstances relevant to the scope of the advice' is s...

4 months 3 weeks ago

ASIC has suspended the Australian Financial Services Licence of a Melbourne-based financial advice firm....

4 days 16 hours ago

The corporate regulator has issued infringement notices to three AFSLs whose financial advisers provided personal advice to a retail client while unregistered....

1 week 2 days ago

ASIC has released the results of its first adviser exam to be held in 2025, with 241 candidates attempting the test....

2 weeks ago

TOP PERFORMING FUNDS

ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND