Time for investors to increase and widen their exposure to stocks as vaccines tame Covid-19

'Lockdown losers' hammered last year could bounce strongly, but don't abandon tech-oriented stocks that led early stage of the rally

Ben Paul

Published Mon, Jan 4, 2021 · 05:50 AM

Mark to Market

THIS time last year, before Covid-19 was on the radar of most investors, this column expressed anxiety about the extended rally in technology stocks such as Amazon, Apple, Alphabet (which owns Google), Facebook and Microsoft, which had been at least partly fuelled by the US Federal Reserve's monetary loosening during the preceding months.

As it happened, these heavyweight US technology stocks were exactly what investors needed to own as the virus swept across the world and sent global markets into a tailspin.

Their products and services, which were becoming ever more essential in our daily lives, were suddenly all the more indispensable as we isolated ourselves from one another.

Amazon and Apple were the strongest performers among these big stocks, rising more than 74 per cent and 83 per cent respectively over the …