Remarkable eight months opens up full spectrum of value

The past eight months have been remarkable for European equity markets.

The recent bull market has been one of the strongest rises in indices ever recorded, in the shortest period of time. The change in sentiment, valuation, momentum and shape of the market has been breathtaking. The surge concentrated initially on smaller capitalisation, highly cyclical and low-quality companies. This shape of performance can occur in the early stages of a market recovery. It is not necessarily the case, however, that those stocks that recover earliest go on to lead the market subsequently; after the technology bubble burst, for example, many technology stocks rebounded fro...