Covid variants 'biggest concern' for market stability in 2022

Omicron rattled markets when it hit the UK at the end of November

Financial advisers have named Covid variants as the biggest threat to market stability in 2022, as the Omicron strain of the virus starts to spread across the UK and other parts of the world.

Quilter Investors surveyed 300 financial advisers as part of its 2022 Global Outlook report, with 66% saying new variants and the speed of global vaccination campaigns is the biggest concern as this year comes to an end. An additional 19% cited higher inflation as the biggest risk, while 12% were most concerned about the potential failing of, or short lived, strong economic growth. The end of November saw the FTSE 100 suffer its worst session in more than a year on the back of news that the Omicron variant had reached the UK. Similarly, in Europe, the STOXX 50 index fell 4% on the wor...