In October, optimism was prevailing on global stock market. US market continued breaking records fuelled by good economic data reports and data on Q3 profits of US companies.

September brought back optimism to global stock markets triggered both by good economic data reports and by desire of the investors to buy stocks that became cheaper in price. From mid-May to end of August, stocks of European companies dropped on average by more than 7%. It is therefore no surprise that prices got more attractive for the market players, and along with the change of moods followed the buy-up of European stocks.

In August, the relatively peaceful moods that were observed on the global stock market over this year were interrupted by rapid escalation of geopolitical tension. For the entire month, headlines of the global mass media were all about the nuclear programme of North Korea, which is massively increasing its military capacity despite the international moratorium and sanctions.

We would like to informthat on 2 October 2017 the amendments to the regulations, prospectuses and basic information for investors of the ABLV Asset Management, IPAS managed investment funds is entering into force due to new provisions of the Law on Investment Companies.

In July, global bond market was demonstrating multidirectional movements. One of the key topics determining performance of any market was the forgotten issue of exchange rates. ECB Head Mario Draghi’s announcement at the end of June, where he in some way shocked investors with his positive comments on economic situation in Eurozone and hinted that the end of QE programme is right around the corner, caused a rather sharp growth of EUR against USD.

In June, on the global stock market, a typical consolidation stage was observed, which was slowly entered by the markets as early as in May. Leading topic for investors both within certain markets and in global scale was rotation which resulted in multidirectional movement among key stock indices and among sectors and industries.

The traditional saying “Sell in May and go away” did not quite work this year, and May has become another positive month for global stock markets. Moreover, the usual nervousness and increased volatility often observed in May were missing too. On the contrary, VIX index, which reflects stock market volatility expectations, fell down to the lowest point since 1993. News background was rather empty creating an impression of that the market was moving habitually slowly entering consolidation stage.

In April, given the absence of any news or events capable of affecting the moods of the investors, the global stock market entered the stage of consolidation after a rather strong growth in Q1 of this year. Corporate earnings reports mostly met investor expectations; macroeconomic data had no surprises as well, so the attention of the market participants was focused on the political background in Europe.

In March, the global stock market retained positive moods, yet investors have become more selective, while the stock markets of various states and regions have lost their lockstep. If those were American stock indices that set the tone in February, then in March the European markets took over the lead. STOXX Europe 600 index grew by 2.94% within a month, while American S&P 500 stayed where it was, and the Japanese market lost more than 1%.

In February, optimism continued to prevail on global stock market. As before, the US capital market indexes set the tone for positive moods, achieving new records day after day. It should be noted that investors had enough reasons for such optimism, since earnings season turned out to be rather good. As at the end of February, reports were published by approximately 90% of the companies, and 74% of those managed to surpass the analysts’ profit estimates, as the overall profit growth constituted 5%.