Internal turmoil fails to halt continent's equity growth

Even though the political and economic environment in Europe remains in the doldrums, large-cap stocks will continue to perform well. For several years, European companies' profits and stock prices have comfortably outstripped their countries' economic growth. Continental European equity markets have nearly doubled since the lows of March 2003, which has made them some of the best-performing developed markets in the world. For example, the Standard & Poor's Europe 350 index was trading at 1,258.98 points on the 8 June 2006 compared to 853.11 points three years ago, while the MSCI Europ...