Desensitised investors immune to London attacks
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”.
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