S&P Dow Jones Indices Market Attributes: Europe Index Dashboard

The S&P Europe 350^® concluded a volatile July with a 4.1% total return, posting its sixth positive month so far this year and recovering back nearly all of the losses incurred in June.

The European equities markets began the month in a nervous mood, with traders closely tracking the perceived likelihood of a Greek default. The markets bottomed out in response to an “Oxi” in the Greek referendum, but with a suitably fudged last-minute short-term solution duly found and passed in the Greek parliament, the markets returned to the winning ways established earlier this year.

Health Care has recently been posting stellar returns in developed nations across the world, and topped sector performances in Europe for July. In signs of increasing dispersion among stock performances, a gap of more than 10% separated the returns of the S&P Europe 350 Health Care sector from the month’s laggard – Materials. The latter largely reflected the continued turmoil in the commodity markets, with the S&P GSCI Agriculture and S&P GSCI Energy indices both recording double-digit losses this month.

With the immediate concern over Greece receding, and as the European Central Bank made public its intention to defend the bonds of other euro-area sovereigns from speculative attacks, the S&P Eurozone Sovereign Bond index gained 2.17% in July. The 2.36% return for the S&P Eurozone 7-10 Year Sovereign Bond index was the best since Ireland formally exited its own bailout program, back in January 2014.