Contrarian: Why investors should target tech stocks

CONTRARIAN INVESTOR

Here is a slightly outlandish idea. If you are looking for safety in these hard and uncertain times, buy tech stocks.

I realise this contrarian advice comes at a peculiar moment, what with Facebook having landed on the US markets at a truly astonishing valuation. But the social media giant is not representative of the much broader technology sector. That vast, largely US-based leviathan, has rebounded impressively since the dark days of late 2007. The DJ World Technology sector is up 32% compared to 0% for the FTSE World, excluding dividends, and is currently my favourite ‘quality’ sector. Mainstream investors wax lyrical about the defensive appeal of, say, pharma or tobacco but I cannot help thinkin...