Sussex investors may have been somewhat concerned last week as markets hit their lowest levels since the beginning of the year.

Following Ben Bernanke’s “tapering” announcement, some disappointing Chinese data and the subsequent sell-off that ensued, markets moved to a technically oversold position.

Fortunately we then saw economic data that supports the idea of a strengthening US economy, but not to the extent that would suggest the immediate withdrawal, or slowdown in monetary stimulus.

A strong rebound came in the second half of the week with indices ending well above their start-of-week levels.

Mining stocks were once again the main casualties, as concerns over the stability of the Chinese economy sparked a further dip in commodity prices.

On the positive side Tesco was the best performing FTSE 100 stock, up over 6% and Ocado, the online grocery services company, surged ahead another 13%, booking the biggest rise in the FTSE 250.

Elsewhere, Stagecoach, the international transport group with operations in Sussex, reported a strong set of results with earnings per share higher than analysts’ expectations.

The dividend was also raised by 10.3% to 8.6p. Greene King released an impressive set of full year results with revenue up 4.8% and profit before tax up 6.6%.

The dividend was increased by 7.3% as free cash flow improved compared to last year.

This week sees Mark Carney, the new Governor of the Bank of England, presiding over his first monetary policy decision.

The market generally expects some soothing words aimed at reminding investors that active monetary tightening remains a long way off.