Profits down and interest rate worries for Europe

The analysis for this category covers the equity Europe sector as well as equity Europe ex-UK and each of their smaller companies counterparts. All of the sectors had reasonably robust returns during the year, particularly the smaller companies Europe ex-UK sector which, according to Standard & Poor's data, gained 27.5% in USD terms. This exceeded the returns of its large-cap equivalent by approximately seven percentage points. Returns this year in both of the large-cap sectors are approximately five percentage points lower than the year before; the smaller companies sectors have seen a far...