Neglected European stocks risk irrelevance

The FTSE 100 fell 0.12 percent, with Carillion shares suspended from trading after one of the biggest UK corporate failures in years.

LONDON: It’s frustrating to be a cheerleader for European markets these days.

Investors keep taking money out of the region’s equities, with outflows marking all but two of the past 60 weeks. Strategists this year have called Europe an “investment backwater” and the “most crowded short”. Cheap valuations haven’t been enough to counter money managers’ concerns ranging from volatile politics and an economic slowdown to trade tensions and the lack of big tech stocks.