Investing December 2, 2000

American Funds Find Home In European Stocks

December 2, 2000 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Americans - including pension funds and institutional investors - invested more money in European stocks last quarter than any other in the past three years, according to a Lehman Brothers report.
Reported by

In the third quarter, a net $4 billion flowed across the pond – the most since the $8.5 billion in the third quarter of 1997, according to Bloomberg.  That was a significant turnabout from the second quarter, when US investors pulled a net $12 billion from European stocks. 

Investors also pulled back $12.4 billion from Japanese stocks in the quarter ended June 30.  Last quarter US investors sold a net $5.7 billion of Japanese stocks.

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Closer to Home

The attraction is apparently not lost on continental Europeans, who have also been stepping up their equity investments.  As of September 30, an estimated 38% of total financial assets, including pension funds, were in European stocks, up nicely from 20% in 1995.  American investors also have an estimated 38% of their financial assets in stocks, but in the U.K., it’s 57%.

Foreign investors own about 35% of all U.K. equities, according to the report.

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