Investor confidence in UK markets fell by 28% in the first week of April, Hargreaves Lansdown (HL) has found.

The firm’s investor confidence index, which surveyed HL clients between 1 and 8 April, revealed that confidence in North American markets dropped by 35%.

The financial services firm said that this followed the introduction of tariffs introduced by President Donald Trump on trading partners and goods.

HL stated that these tariffs sent "shockwaves through markets" and that investors lost confidence "in droves".

Global emerging markets and Asia saw falls in confidence of 28% and 23%, respectively, while confidence in Europe dropped by 15%.

Furthermore, confidence in UK economic growth also fell by 43% among HL clients.

However, HL found that US and global tracker funds "remain popular", while investors have preferred to stick with familiar markets of the investment trust world in this period.

Head of fund research at HL, Victoria Hasler, said: "In what has been an incredibly volatile time for both markets and politics, investor confidence has tumbled. The first week of April saw President Trump introduce tariffs across virtually all its trading partners and pretty much all goods.

"The extent and level of tariffs imposed sent shockwaves through markets and our survey shows that investors lost confidence in droves. While Trump later announced a 90-day rollback on the tariffs, this came too late to be reflected in our data and, regardless, has done little to calm investors.

"In such difficult times our data shows that passive investment funds are still the most popular choice, with only one actively managed fund, Artemis Income, making it into the top 10 most bought funds. The list is still dominated by US and global funds, but a European tracker has crept in at number nine and a UK tracker at number eight."

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