UK Timing indicators & returns.

So here we are half way through 2017 already and what an eventful year it has been so far. Having said that however, it has been quite a reasonable period for equity markets generally including the UK. As you can see from this table  all the main UK indices have produced positive returns over the last quarter, half year and twelve months. Despite all the headlines about FTSE hitting new highs recently and outperforming due to sterling weakness, it is interesting to see it bringing up the rear over the year to date and indeed over most of the periods covered here. Indeed it seems that returns have generally improved as you go down the size scale.

The only negative returns have crept in during the last month, which given the political turmoil after May's unexpected massacre at the polls in June, it is probably not a great surprise to see some profit taking set in. In addition some signs of an economic slowdown on the back of the on going squeeze on real incomes from rising inflation and this political uncertainty has probably also not helped sentiment in the short term.

So that brings me on nicely to update you on the Monthly timing indicators that I follow for the UK Total Return Indices, which are based on comparing them to their moving averages and other economic statistics. Despite the falls last month these are all still in positive / stay invested territory. Given the returns over the last 12 months discussed above, it is no surprise to see the smaller indices furtherest above their averages by around 5 to 7% while the broader headline indices such as the All Share & FTSE 350 are around 4%
above as is the FTSE 100 as shown in the graph at the start of this post.

Economic statistics, despite the recent slow down in the UK, such as IMS indices and the US Unemployment rate all still supportive of a continuation of the bullish trend for now.

That's all for now as it is Saturday and the sun is out, but I'll try and do an update on the CIS Portfolio next week, although the graph and data table link are be up to date if your interested in those.