Europe's investors turn to equities

European investors continue to pour money into their equity markets. Although the pace has clearly slowed since the massive influx seen earlier this year, in the past few months retail equity inflows have been running at an annualised rate of $157bn. These same investors are selling their bond funds, a trend that began in mid 1999, and reflects the growing equity culture among Europeans. While American, British and Swedish investors have long held a high proportion of their mutual fund assets in equities, a big change is going on in the rest of Europe. The latest figures show that in Ital...