AIM rule change gets mixed response from investors

George Osborne's plan to encourage investment in smaller businesses by removing stamp duty on AIM stocks has been met with a mixed reaction.

In yesterday's Budget, the Chancellor announced plans to remove the 0.5% stamp duty reserve tax from shares on growth markets such as AIM and ISDX. The move is intended to increase investor interest in smaller companies, and comes on top of the exemption from inheritance tax which AIM investors already enjoy if the shares are held for more than two years. Small-cap manager Giles Hargreave, who runs the Hargreave Hale AIM VCTs as well as the Marlborough UK Micro-Cap Growth fund, praised the move as supporting the "lifeblood" of the British economy. "Abolishing stamp duty on AIM shar...