Where you should have been invested this year

Those looking to maximise returns in the first half of the year should have parked their money in Eastern European equity markets such as Hungary and the Czech Republic, according to data from S&P's.

Standard & Poor's research shows these two markets proved themselves the most capable of shrugging off a difficult start to 2011: the Hungarian market rose by 20.6% from 1 January to 30 June, while the Czech Republic enjoyed a 15.1% gain. Of the 45 countries assessed by S&P, the next best performers were even closer to the epicentre of the European sovereign debt crisis. The French equity market rose by 14%, the Spanish equity market by 12.3%, and Ireland was up by 11.8%. A gain of 4.3% for developed equity markets year-to-date versus a 2.2% fall for emerging equity markets backs up t...