Markets

Go back 10 years from this very day and the stock market was going into freefall as technology stocks finally came back to earth with a resounding bump.

With the benefit of hindsight it is clear now that some fledgling tech companies were fantastic businesses and have proved this since but back then it was harder to distinguish the wheat from the chaff.

The likes of Google and Amazon for instance have been arguably as successful as any company in any sector in terms of sustained growth over recent years.

Some will argue that many tech stocks are still way below valuation levels seen during the 2000 boom – given that these are the survivors does this mean that tech in some way has failed to deliver to investors?

One of the UK's leading fund managers is calling on companies to reward investors with buybacks.

Carl Stick, highly respected manager of the Rathbone Income fund, is asking UK companies that hold cash to repurchase their shares.

Fund of funds managers have notably increased their confidence in the stock market.

According to Defaqto, an independent financial research company, multi-managers in the market currently have their lowest levels of cash for over 18 months.

The worsening economic forecasts brought about by the credit crunch led many managers to take a much more defensive stance by increasing cash weightings. This dash for cash appears to have only been short-lived though.