INVESTORS ADVISED TO SIT TIGHT AND TAKE THE LONG TERM VIEW - Kevin Gardiner, the economist best known here for the 1994 turn of phrase Celtic Tiger, was in Dublin last night to meet people with money to invest. The head of Global Investment Strategy at Barclays Wealth says he was actually advising investors not to trade too often as they try to fine-tune the markets. Mr Gardiner says that people should ''sit tight and take the long term view''. He predicts that the wider nervousness seen in world markets will not go away any time soon and says the problems in the euro zone could take several years to correct themselves. He suggests that anyone who says they can understand the markets' movements and can predict their direction is deluding themselves.
Mr Gardiner says he told investors that diversification is always important. He says that investors could look to developed markets as place to put their money and says that many good blue chip companies, with good prospects, are good value, especially on Wall Street. Investors should resist checking the Bloomberg screens, sit back and examine the underlying values of companies, he advises.
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MORNING BRIEFS - The Singapore stock exchange has approved an application by English football giants Manchester United to sell their shares on its stock market, a source familiar with the deal said today. But the club will gauge market sentiment before launching their initial public offering (IPO) because of the uncertainty sparked by the euro zone debt crisis.
*** Major central banks around the world will co-operate to offer three-month US dollar loans to commercial banks in order to prevent money markets from freezing up in the wake of Europe's debt crisis. Global stocks advanced for a third day in a row and the euro rose sharply yesterday after the move by the central banks.
*** On the currency markets, the euro is worth $1.3856 US cents and 87.75 pence sterling.
