Bonds match equity returns

This sector gained an average of over 15% in US dollar terms during the year, only slightly underperforming its counterparts in equity-based sectors investing into Europe. The top performing fund saw returns of 21.8%, and all except three funds had gains of at least 10% - overall, the range of returns of the 250 or so funds in the sector was fairly narrow. Though returns were robust for the sector, they were down compared to the year before when the sector gained an average of 24%. The Standard & Poor's sector analysis on European fixed interest noted that in the second quarter of 2004 th...