E Europe/FSU: Poor equity market performance in Q2
Overview:
Given concerns about Greek debt sustainability, the long-term future of the Euro and the health of the European banking sector it is hardly surprising that equity markets in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union had a very poor quarter. While this mirrored performance in developed equity markets, the returns on EE/FSU indices in the last couple of years have been much poorer than in developed markets. As risk appetite has periodically dried up during the global financial crisis, Emerging Market equities have generally tended to under-perform. Moreover, the EE/FSU region has tended to under-perform other Emerging Markets. While this may well mean that there are some interesting opportunities here, it will take an improvement in risk appetite or an investor with a long time-horizon to make the most of them.