Pease: What will drive markets higher towards year end?

Henderson's Richard Pease expects improving economic indicators, combined with hedge funds putting their cash back to work in equities, will lift European markets towards the end of the year.

Pease (pictured), director of European equities, said investors are rethinking their stance on European stocks after some gains seen in markets since the summer. Managers who were underweight European equities since May would have missed out on a 13% and 11% gain from the French Cac and the German respectively, while Spain's IBEX 35 is up 16% over the same period. "Hedge funds have adopted a more cautious stance this year and many are sitting on substantial cash piles. Having missed out on the late summer equity rally, they may well decide to play catch up, en masse. "Similarly, i...