Survey of almost 1700 retail traders points to successful Covid vaccination programmes and the subsequent reopening of global economies as reasons for positive market sentiment

Only two in five clients of Capital.com, the high-growth European investment trading platform, are optimistic about the stock market, according to a new survey.

A survey of nearly 1700 Capital.com clients globally found that 42.6% of traders have a bullish outlook on the global stock market for the remainder of 2021, expecting prices to continue rising through the rest of the year.

Market optimism is largely driven by ongoing vaccine roll-outs and the reopening of economies, with 71.3% of Capital.com clients identifying this as a source of confidence. Other reasons for optimism include the resumption of international travel, identified by 46.7% of clients, while 34.1% also anticipate an employment boom having a positive impact on the economy. Respondents also cited continued retail sales (31.6%) and more fiscal stimulus (30.7%) as reasons for their bullish sentiment.

Despite the generally positive outlook however, more than one third of Capital.com clients remained  neutral on the outlook for global stocks. 

38.9% of clients surveyed said they were ‘neutral’ about the stock market’s prospects and 18.5% said they were bearish, expecting prices to fall. When asked what factors were deemed to have the biggest negative impact on stock markets,  59.7% of Capital.com traders identified ongoing Covid-related lockdown measures as a key risk while 43.2% cited rising interest rates and 38.1% listed international conflict as areas of concern.

Commenting on the survey findings, David Jones, Chief Market Strategist at Capital.com said: 

“The economic outlook is mixed at the moment and this sentiment seems to be reflected by our clients. While stocks have climbed recently, as economies emerge from the pandemic and consumer confidence grows, there are also ominous signs such as rising inflation and concerns about the potential of the delta variant to plunge us back into lockdown.”

When asked where they would likely invest over the next six months, 63.2% of survey respondents said they’d be investing in the Nasdaq, which is largely pegged to the US’s booming technology sector. This compares to just 19.9% who said they’d be investing in UK technology stocks. 27.3% also said they’d be investing in hospitality, leisure and travel stocks. 

“While certain sections of the economy are highly vulnerable to potential further lockdowns, other sectors are highly resilient. In particular the US tech sector has boomed recently as people around the world switch to both remote working and remote retail spending, supported by US tech giants and software. Even as economies reopen, it seems many of the culture changes ushered in by the pandemic, such as working from home and online retail growth, are here to stay. We see this resilience reflected in the ongoing appeal of the Nasdaq,” added Jones.

Capital.com enables clients to trade derivatives of over 3,000 of the world’s most popular markets through its web and mobile platforms. The platform recently diversified beyond derivatives trading to facilitate commission-free stock dealing with tight spreads.  With no hidden costs or mark-ups and with no fees to pay on deposits or withdrawals, clients can invest directly in an underlying stock without incurring any additional costs or expenses.

Capital.com surveyed its global customer base between 14 and 20 June 2021,  receiving 1677 email responses in total.