Investor Confidence Apparent Despite Stock Market Volatility

Almost Half (47%) Believe Interest Rates in Canada Will Remain the Same -While 30% Say they Will Be Lower, 21% Say Higher -- Than in Past Year

Toronto, Ontario- Despite the roller coaster ride of the stock markets over the past few months, coupled with increased profit warnings, dot.com and other sector lay-offs, a majority of Canadians (54%) are confident that now is a good time to buy stocks in Canadian companies, while only 34 percent say it is a "bad time" to buy.

Men (60%) and Quйbecers (58%) are most likely to be "bullish" about the stock market. While women (35%) and residents of BC (39%) and Ontario (37%) are most likely to be "bears".

But Canadians are also keeping an eye on their wallets over the next year. When asked to choose between one of three things they plan to focus on more in 2001 compared to last year, only 8 percent pick "spend more money". In contrast, 44 percent indicate they will "save or invest more money" and the same number (44%) say they plan to "pay off more bills or debt". In this regard, there are some demographic differences that are particularly noticeable: plans for spending more is highest among those aged 55 and over (16%). Plans for saving or investing more money is highest among those aged 18 to 34 (50%) and plans for paying off more bills or debt is highest among middle aged Canadians (54%).

As for interest rates, most Canadians (47%) believe that interest rates will be "about the same" as they have been for 2001, whereas 30 percent believe that they will be lower and 21 percent believe they will be higher. Those most likely to believe that rates will continue to fall are from Ontario (34%) while those most likely to say they will be higher are from Atlantic Canada (28%).

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid/Globe and Mail/CTV poll conducted between January 22nd and 25th, 2001. The poll is based on a randomly selected sample of 1,000 adult Canadians. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 1996 Census data.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

John Wright
Senior Vice President
Public Affairs
Ipsos-Reid
(416) 324-2900