COVID-19 Recovery Dominates Markets

This is now the fifth Industry Watch where COVID-19 has been the main influence on company performance and market trends, and this situation is unlikely to change any time soon.

Although the pandemic is global, the situation, like the weather, differs greatly from one region to another and it is not easy to predict accurately what will affect market sentiment next, This generally leads to turbulence rather than a trend, and we have seen this in the first period of 2021 (see below).

Using end December as the start point (0%) for all markets, most reached a high point mid-January but then lost value and by month-end were showing a loss. The exceptions were the Asian markets, which all gained between 7% and 15%.