France

Footloose and financially free

The eurozone's two largest economies both performed worse than expected in the second quarter, raising fresh fears over economic stability in the currency bloc.

Neptune's Rob Burnett has been adding to peripheral European banks in anticipation of a share price bounce after this year's round of stress tests are completed.

Saxo Bank has published a list of ten 'outrageous predictions' which could play out in 2014 and impact global investment markets.

CONTRARIAN INVESTOR

Hugh Sergeant, manager of the River and Mercantile World Recovery fund and the group's top performing UK Equity Long Term Recovery fund, has been eyeing opportunities across Europe despite the uncertain outlook for the region.

Standard & Poor's has downgraded France's credit rating from AA+ to AA.

Markets across the continent were lower in morning trading as investors reacted to heavy selling in emerging markets.

The eurozone has come out of recession, recording GDP growth of 0.3% in the second quarter to bring a record 18-month contraction to an end.

ECONOMIC OUTLOOK