In a telephone conference with several hundred financial advisers, MLC informed advisers that active managers with strong investment processes and strong investment discipline, are more likely to pick up stocks at very attractive prices relative to their medium-term growth
opportunities.

Jonathan Armitage, MLC’s Global equity portfolio manager said: “It’s times like this, where we continue to witness not just market volatility but individual stock volatility, that the critical role of an active manager, in producing strong returns, becomes really clear.

“If you look at the top 10 moves in the Dow Jones index since it was created in its current form back in the 1920’s, over that period, four of them have happened in the last two weeks.

“In the same two week period, we have also seen our managers, some of whom have been holding quite high cash positions which has held them in very good stead in the recent volatility, put that money to work and invest in some high quality stocks,” said Mr Armitage.

“Interestingly, last week we saw a surge in insider buying, not seen since March 2009. It was reported that 50 managers in over 60 companies in the US bought stock in their own companies, last week.

“The point is that an active manager will use this period of uncertainty and volatility to pick up very high quality stocks at what should prove to be extremely attractive valuations for the medium term,” he said.

MLC also launched a brand new online Market Volatility Toolkit, built in response to the market volatility of the last two weeks, which supports financial advisers have conversations with their clients during these uncertain times and provides them with a range of useful tools and the
latest information.

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