Eurozone equities, time to dip back in?

atush

I do have some euroland investments, but have been under weight for some time. Looking to dip my toes back in t he water.

Was thinking of eurostokx 50 etf. Anyone got a contrary (or complimentary) opinion?

Linton

As a long term investor I think you should have gone in earlier. I believe the current Euro problems are financial ones that have little long term affect on the strength of european industry.

Totton

I'm covering Europe solely through holdings in Global IT's where the manager decides to hold a %. I think the problem is clouded by the EU politics too much for me to make a decent judgement on the investment itself at the moment. I would probably buy in if markets fell another 20% but otherwise I prefer elsewhere.

atush

Linton, I expect you are right. But I have been away w/o-w/limited internet for some months, and am waiting for other reasons.

unlike you, I am not trying to find the Bottom per say, but to buy when not all and sundry aren't (and to sell when all and sundry are buying). And when I feel I have spare money to invest. I have been thinking about this for some time, which means I have already 'missed' the bottom lol.

So I was thinking of mirroring the UK stock investments I have made over the past 2/3 years and buy into blue chip high dividend stocks. Picked the stox50, as I was thinking for a higher germany/france mix than a general euro one that included the southern euro countries like italy/spain/port.

I do already, like Totton hold some general global IT's with eurozone exposure as i said-so this is a seperate, smaller play. For money I had saved to buy a new car but decided I'd rather drive the old one for 3 more years ;-)

atush

Bump for any others who want to weigh in?

srcandas

atush wrote: »

Bump for any others who want to weigh in?

Over the weekend, between enjoying a certain sporting event , we have been chatting to our spanish family. The latest happenings there are a mayor supporting theft from supermarkets, amazement by the Norwegians in particular that old people and children are being kicked onto the street, and the growing number of people now with zero state help (dole is paid in Spain for a limited time and there is minimal social help).

As law and order breaks down, and no solution is on the table or even evolving, I feel this will impact the Euro area. Of course a Greek exit without too many deaths might help if combined with the Central European Bank stepping in to lower interest rates for Spain and Italy but despite hints this might happen over some time it seems Germany will do nothing until both Spain and Italy ask for formal rescues and place themselves under German control. And to be fair I sympathise with Germany not wanting to throw good money after bad

Now I know companies can operate and make profits under such circumstances and many have cash positions to ride such happenings but I can't see it lends itself to big equity gains in general.

Looking at the stats the Euro markets do seem to be resilient of late and thus not terribly cheap.

So while I think the UK will try to lower the pound, or at least keep it steady, I think the disruption in Euroland will not help and so am maintaining my position of 0.3% of my portfolio in Euroland

But I must admit I find the Euro situation very complex and am quite happy concentrating on Asia and mining stocks for the forseeable :beer:

Forever

I'm cautious so I would say wait and see what happens over the next 9 months or so.

The reason I say this is that if certain countries break away, it's likely to provide a better opportunity for investments. But if they all stay together and continue towards fiscal unity, it could be unstable for considerable time yet.

Good luck with the decision

gadgetmind

I started buying back into the Euro zone back in late January. I selected Investment Trusts based on sector spread, geographic spread, and discounts. I mainly invested in Jupiter European, but later on also invested in Henderson European Focus. The former is up 25% and the later about 15%.

I also bought some TR Property in my wife's ISA and this is also up about 15%.

I'm watching discounts on all of these and may "go passive" if/when they reduce.

sabretoothtigger

Never been any reason to leave. A quality euro company will export globally and its those currencies in exchange that you should worry about more then Euro which is a funding issue.
If its exporting, its funding is essentially from its customers and you can skip the home based political circus

Domestically I would not chase up business across europe, it has to be world based and unique probably engineering is most wanted as we are still far advanced of most 2nd tier nations

gadgetmind

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

Domestically I would not chase up business across europe, it has to be world based and unique probably engineering is most wanted as we are still far advanced of most 2nd tier nations

Personally, I have always worked in high-tech industries, and have always seen the world as my market.

When the peeps from the Yellow Pages call, I love telling them that not only don't I have customers in the region, I don't have *any* in the UK, and only one in Europe.

The world is a big place, but sadly many UK businesses look for opportunities with a microscope rather than a telescope.

Reaper

I have a few investments in Europe and think there is some good value available if you are in it for the long term, but with stock prices currently on an uptick I would hesitate to buy more at the moment as I am sure there will be another crisis before long that drives prices back down again.

For example although some way off I can't see how Greece can stay in the Euro long term and I expect the exit to be messy rather managed. My guess is they will try (or threaten to) to default on their debts while staying in the Euro to the great annoyance of their partners.