AIM Industry Report 2017/18

33 32 Having said that, looking at sectors, we picked out four of the 10 sectors in AIM, looking at total monthly trading between June 2016 and October 2017. It is clear that there has been a fairly steady rise in trading in all of them, despite some peaks in terms of the number of shares actually traded. Interestingly, September and October 2016 produced a significant peak for trading activities for these four sectors and this period of the year has been called the most volatile time for stocks. While 2017 may show some signs of this, it appears not to be so sensitive to this phenomenon. Perhaps the jump in trading in the second half of 2016 reflects the drop in the price of equity in UK focused companies in the aftermath of the Brexit vote and the resultant sterling weakness, making them more attractive for opportunistic and overseas investors in these sectors. These peaks may not appear so obvious in the overall figures as they are dominated by very strong trading in the oil and gas, energy and resources sectors, where the UK focus may be much smaller. “Recent impressive performance should not distract clients from the need to manage the inherent risks of AIM company investment.” — MATT STRACHAN, THORNTONS INVESTMENTS “AIM remains a true stock pickers market. Successes are rewarded handsomely and failures can be painful, so it is important to ensure that each company is researched extensively and a portfolio remains balanced and diversified.” — JON GOULD, PSIGMA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY (Software & Computer Services/Technology, Hardware and Equipment) CONSUMER SERVICES (Food & Drug Retailers/General Retailers/Media/Travel & Leisure) FINANCIALS (Banks/Nonlife Insurance/Life Insurance/Real Estate Investment & Services/ Real Estate Investment Trusts/General Financial/Equity Investment Instruments/ Nonequity Investment Instruments) INDUSTRIALS (Construction & Materials/Aerospace & Defence/General Industrials/Electronic & Electrical Equipment/Industrial Engineering/Industrial Transportation/Support Services) To give an indication of the liquidity available on the main markets in comparison to AIM, a snapshot of the share volume traded by the top 20 companies in terms of share volume traded, looking at the AIM 100 and the FTSE 100, at 7 December 2017 reveals there is more than three times the trading activity on the FTSE 100. Nevertheless, there is liquidity in the AIM market. Like the main markets, it is affected by macroeconomic factors and can be strongly dependent on the underlying trade sector. FTSE 100 AIM 100 164,731,454 52,300,122 VOLUME OF SHARES TRADED BY TOP 20 COMPANIES BY SHARE VOLUME TRADED SOURCE: HI.CO.UK , 7 DEC 2017 NO. OF TRADES JUN 16 DEC JUN JUL JAN 17 JULY AUG FEB AUG SEP MAR SEP OCT APR OCT NOV MAY 140,000 120,000 100,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20,000 0 TOTAL VALUE OF TRADES (m) JUN 16 DEC JUN JUL JAN 17 JULY AUG FEB AUG SEP MAR SEP OCT APR OCT NOV MAY 1400m 1200m 1000m 800m 600m 400m 200m 0 NO. OF TRADES JUN 16 DEC JUN JUL JAN 17 JULY AUG FEB AUG SEP MAR SEP OCT APR OCT NOV MAY 140,000 120,000 100,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20,000 0 NO. OF SHARES TRADED OCT JUN 16 DEC JUN JUL JAN 17 JULY AUG FEB AUG SEP MAR SEP OCT APR NOV MAY 100m 200m 300m 400m 500m 600m 0 NO. OF TRADES JUN 16 DEC JUN JUL JAN 17 JULY AUG FEB AUG SEP MAR SEP OCT APR OCT NOV MAY 70,000 80,000 90,000 100,000 60,000 50,000 40,000 30,000 20,000 10,000 0 TOTAL VALUE OF TRADES (m) JUN 16 DEC JUN JUL JAN 17 JULY AUG FEB AUG SEP MAR SEP OCT APR OCT NOV MAY 100m 200m 300m 400m 600m 500m 800m 700m 0 NO. OF SHARES TRADED JUN 16 DEC JUN JUL JAN 17 JULY AUG FEB AUG SEP MAR SEP OCT APR OCT NOV MAY 1200m 1000m 800m 600m 400m 200m 0 SOURCE: LSE SOURCE: LSE NO. OF TRADES JUN 16 DEC JUN JUL JAN 17 JULY AUG FEB AUG SEP MAR SEP OCT APR OCT NOV MAY 300,000 250,000 200,000 150,000 100,000 50,000 0 NOTE