Gloomy news headlines are causing panic among investors.
Consumers with money in stocks and shares should sit tight and wait until the market recovers, according to a senior investments advisor at Bestinvest. Adrian Lowcocks suggested that pulling out of the markets when they may be nearing the bottom is not a sensible strategy.
He said investors who have spent years building up their equity portfolios have been panicking about the state of the markets for some time now and many have responded to recent news headlines about large falls in the FTSE 100 by rushing to sell their shares.
However, he advised investors to "take a step back" and think about the long-term rather than reacting to short-term fluctuations. "It is a case of just sitting tight and waiting on the recovery which will eventually happen," he remarked.
According to research by the Association of Investment Companies, over 42 percent of active investors believe the stock market will perform badly over the next 12 months. However, 44 percent plan to take Mr Lowcocks' advice and sit tight on their investments, while 33 percent still plan to increase their investments over the coming months.
At 11:10 GMT today, the FTSE 100 was down 1.67 percent. The decline follows yesterday's increase of 0.37 percent on the day.
