Fund managers: Stockpickers can still profit from AIM

A market for stockpickers

The London Stock Exchange's junior market was launched 20 years ago this week, and although its performance has far from impressed over the period, Hardeep Tawakley looks at why so many managers remain fans of the growth stories it has to offer.

Depending on who you talk to, AIM - the London Stock Exchange's international market for smaller companies - is either regarded as a huge success, or a major disappointment.  This is because although AIM has supported more than 3,580 companies, which have together raised £39.4bn at admission alone and contributed some £14.7bn to UK GDP since inception (see graphic, below), its performance since launch has been nothing short of dreadful.  When it launched on 19 June 1995 it included just ten companies, all of which were from the UK and had a market cap of just over £82m. In 2014, the i...