Jun 2010 Financial News

Investors watching economy, taking cautious approach

Jun 18, 2010

Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange CEO, Wain Iton, says the local stock market shows that investors are taking a very cautions approach to their investment due to the state of the economy.

He said while both the market indices and volumes being traded are up compared to the January 1 to May 30 period last year, the value of the shares being traded was down.

Giving figures, he showed that the market’s indices had increased this year by an average of eight per cent. The CEO explained, ’While it’s a relatively stable market it is a difficult period. There are some question marks for investors.’

Iton did not blame any particular regime’s management of the economy for the question marks, but said it was circumstantial. He said a general election, as the country experienced on May 24 , always affects investor confidence, as persons usually wait to see which way the economy turns.

’Yes, an election tends to have an impact on the mood of the market,’ he said.

He said the volumes were up this year compared to last year by 57 per cent, while the value of the shares traded this year went down by 41 per cent.

The decisions which investors have to make is set against the backdrop of Minister of Finance Winston Dookeran’s recent declaration, that T&T was very close to a 50 per cent debt to GDP ratio.

Fifty per cent is used as the economic marker which economists the world over use to signal that a country could face a crisis if borrowing practices are not quickly examined.


Source:
Aretha Welch awelch@trinidadexpress.com
Trinidad Express
Friday June 18, 2010

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