It has been a volatile ride across Europe’s equity markets this year — with no sign of abating, according to the region’s top sell-side research providers.
“A lot has happened in the last twelve months; the region has actually changed quite dramatically,” said Eric Lopez, head of EMEA equity research at BofA Securities. “There are a lot of questions around not only the economic environment in Europe but also globally.”
As the region struggled to put the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent variant waves in the rearview mirror, it has also been largely affected by supply chain issues, inflation and rising interest rates, and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia this February, which additionally drove up energy prices.
“I seem to say this more often in recent years, but equity markets remain volatile and the macro-economic outlook is uncertain,” said Theepan Jothilingam, head of EMEA research at BNP Paribas Exane. “We started the year already thinking about European and US rate hikes and inflation, [and] this hasn’t changed, but since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we have tried to add even more scrutiny to our analysis on industry trends across defense spend, energy prices, and food security.”
To select the members of our 2022 All-Europe (Developed Europe) Research Team, Institutional Investor solicited the opinions of portfolio managers and analysts at institutions with major securities holdings in Europe. We received responses from over 4,650 investment professionals at more than 1,690 institutions.
Participants first rated their top firms in each sector on a scale from 1-5, and then separately rated individual analysts or economists/strategists at those firms to create two distinct results for each sector. A numerical score was produced by weighting each vote based on both the responding firm’s European equity commissions and their rating.
Using those scores, ranks were then determined. Firms/analysts were designated runners‐up when their scores came within 35 percent of the third-place scores.
The main leader’s tables include the industry and macro research sectors. The overall country research were aggregated with country sales and, in some markets, corporate access, small & Mid-Cap stocks, and trading & execution to create the overall Best Country Broker results.
The individuals surveyed are kept confidential to ensure continuing cooperation. Voters must meet eligibility requirements, and winners must achieve a minimum vote count.