Manufacturing is set to benefit from restocking

The European manufacturing sector is set to benefit from inventory restocking on top of the expected cyclical economic recovery. Jason James, European equity strategist at HSBC, says manufacturers in Europe will recover soon, driven by the need to restock depleted inventories. 'Last year, final demand collapsed in the US so companies found themselves with excess inventories and aggressively got rid of them through not ordering any new stock,'says James. In addition to the cyclical recovery, many investors, such as Michel Legros, manager of the Merrill Lynch European Dynamic fund, b...