Dennise Williams, Staff Reporter
Vernon James, of Dehring, Bunting and Golding Limited.
IN THE current investment climate, two things are clear. One is that investors are somewhat nervous and are parking their money in 'safe' assets such as foreign currency repurchase agreements. And, in times of uncertainty people like an investment that they can physically hold on to.
Hence, real estate continues to soak up more and more money from all the other asset classes.
Vernon James, manager of the Dehring Bunting & Golding stockbrokerage division echoes this sentiment, "Investors, especially institutions, are sitting on the fence. What people want to see is what positions will push the stock market forward."
Chairman of Today's Money Limited, Orville Johnson says, "Investors are very conservative. There is a view to say let us wait and see before investing in stocks."
Sonia Owens, investment trading manager at Barita Investments notes, "Investors are staying very short. They are not putting their money down for more than 90 days. And even with a change of leadership, it is business as usual. I have a feeling that people now see that interest rates are going to hold firm."
Negrita Chin, vice-president of asset and portfolio management of First Global Financial Services (FGFS) says, "Basically, last year and the early part of this year we saw people taking positions from Jamaican dollars to U.S. dollars. However, you cannot get anyone to invest longer than six months in the money market."
Mr. Johnson said, "People will tend to stay short term in both Jamaican and U.S. depending on how they see the landscape."
Mr. James says, "Concerns abound about how Mrs. Simpson Miller's Cabinet will look and what the budget will contain."
Mr. Johnson adds, "It is a given that people are uncertain. The tax policy and the management style of the country's new leader have yet to be seen."
Mrs. Chin notes that there are investors who believe that a general election will be called early so as not to jeopardise the World Cup next year.Most investors are looking at how the budget will shape up.
And so, Mrs. Chin says, "The trend right now is towards real estate investing."
Mr. James adds, "It's not just individuals, but even pension funds are increasing their real estate portfolio."
