“Uncertainty is now at its peak, creating buying opportunities in the financial markets.”

The markets started red due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but after two hours of trading, the losses receded somewhat. Philip Gigels, chief strategist at BNP Paribas Fortis, admits the raid came as a surprise. I did not expect Putin to go this far, I thought he would stick to the threats. However, the strategist is not too pessimistic about financial markets. “We may be down now. The height of uncertainty – which the markets don’t like – should now be reached gradually. We now know that Putin is attacking Ukraine. The Russians should not go further than Ukraine. We do not expect the Europeans or the Americans to deploy ground forces or Nuclear missile launches.The economic impact will be shown mainly through sanctions, but Russia and Ukraine do not have a strong influence on the global economy.

Previous experience has shown that when uncertainty is greater, there are excellent buying opportunities. March 2020, for example, when the Corona pandemic broke out and caused stock markets to crash, turned out to be an excellent time to get into the stock market. This is because central banks have been quick to support the market and the economy through low interest rates or massive buying programmes. This is a little different now, because higher commodity prices and higher inflation mean that the scope for central banks to support the market is very limited.” Gijsels advises investors to gradually build a buy list with quality stocks that have become much cheaper in recent weeks.