Hargreaves Lansdown's Derren Nathan: Where to take shelter when market volatility explodes

Companies that prosper 'in all weathers'

In the days following the sell-off in early August, one of the worst-performing sectors was one of the old defensive favourites, utilities.

It is impossible to avoid short-term peaks and troughs in the market, but there are certain traits I look out for when searching for companies that can prosper in all weathers. Stable investor returns are hard to predict, but you can spot financial stability.   To my mind, a record of stable earnings and dividend growth is a good place to start, and that tends to be the traditional playbook. Logically speaking, financial stability should correlate with consistency of returns. 'Today is going to be carnage': How funds dealt with a week of market volatility Strong margins are a...