The survey, which was conducted via Twitter, asked advisers whether they preferred to access European (ex UK) equities via specialist funds or indirectly via global equity funds which can invest in those assets if the fund manager chooses to.
The outcome of the poll was an even split, 50/50 between those who favour each option.
European (ex-UK) equities have been sharply out of favour with many clients over the past decade as a consequence of political uncertainty, and also due to the prevalence of the type of value stocks which have underperformed relative to growth stocks over the past decade.
Since the announcement of the first vaccine in November 2020, there have been spells where value stocks have performed better than growth, and if higher growth and higher inflation become a persistent feature of the global and European economies as they exit the pandemic, the likelihood is that European equities would perform well in comparison to more growth-oriented markets such as the US. These tend to perform best when growth and inflation are low.
david.thorpe@ft.com
