Tag: European stock markets

European Undervalued Stocks to Buy and Hold

European stocks pulled back on Wednesday. Headlines on Britain’s last efforts to progress a deal with the EU left investors attached to the outcome.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index closed down 0.1% with London’s exporter-laden FTSE 100. FTSE index, which tends to fall when the pound increases, closed with 0.6% of the decline. It looks that the expectations of a no-deal Brexit weakened.

Germany’s GDAXI. DAX gained 0.3%, and France’s CAC 40.FCHI was flat.

The interesting thing is that investors’ focus turns to Europe’s earnings season. Analysts assume an earnings recession to expand. Several reasons are behind this expectation. The companies fight with uncertainties about Brexit, a U.S.-China trade and Germany’s recession.

Experts are expecting for STOXX 600 companies to report a fall of 3.7% in third-quarter earnings. Just a week ago they were forecasting a decline of 3%, so the result will be worse.

We said this before but investing in European undervalued stocks can be very profitable despite the media reports. After Traders-Paradise gave you and short view on Asian undervalued stocks, there are some European undervalued stocks worth buying.

Henkel

Ticker symbol HENKY
Market cap $42.215B
Current price $23.49

Here is the last half-year report for 2019 from Henkel. The company was founded in 1876 in Aachen. They marketed his first product a universal detergent with silicate used as a base.

Today it is a big company, the German glue, and detergent maker with headquarter in Düsseldorf, Germany.

At the beginning of this year, Henkel has warned profitability will fall in 2019. The company redirected investment to encourage growth in “a challenging market”. The performance last year wasn’t good and shares in Henkel dropped more than 10% after the announcement in January. Despite the company’s announcement that planned a more generous dividend policy from this year. The producer of Persil and Loctite had to informed investors that adjusted earnings per share growth would be lower than in 2018.

Henkel still has organic growth. In the first six months of this year, sales rise by 2.8% to 4,969 million euros, organic growth +0.7%. The free cash flow in the first quarter of this year was considerably higher than in the previous year when it was 22 million euros. The company is investing in growth and improving competitiveness.

Compared to Procter & Gamble Henkel is quite cheap. Its stocks are a very good long-term investment.

Roche Holding AG

Ticker symbol RHHBY
Market Cap $245.384B
Current price $35.74

Roche Holding was founded in 1896 by Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche. In the beginning, the company was known as the producer of various vitamin preparations. Later, in 1934, the company was the first to mass-produce synthetic vitamin C, known as Redoxon. In 1957 it started production of benzodiazepines, for example, Valium and Rohypnol are the best-known. Roche has produced different HIV tests and antiretroviral drugs. Today it is the leader in manufacturing and selling various cancer drugs.

It is a research-based healthcare company. The company operates businesses organized into two parts: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Roche develops medicines for oncology, immunology, infectious diseases, ophthalmology, and neuroscience. Its best known pharmaceutical products are Avastin, Bactrim, Bondronat, Cotellic, Dilatrend, Dormicum, Invirase, Kadcyla, Lariam, Madopar, Neupogen, Pulmozyme, Rocaltrol, Roferon-A, among others.

The suggestion is to buy stock in Roche Holding AG. The company has a steady rating since September.

BASF

Ticker symbol BASFY
Market Cap $67.285B
Current price $18.27

Its headquarters is in Ludwigshafen, Germany. The company was founded in 1865, as Badische Anilin-und Soda-Fabrik AG. There are some facts connected to its operations, actually not the bright one. BASF was extremely influenced company from 1924 to 1947, also BASF was helping to secretly rearm Germany, at that time being a part of IG Farben. Near the end of WWII, the BASF production facilities at Ludwigshafen were bombed.

Today BASF SE is a chemical company and one of the largest chemical producers in the world. The BASF Group operates in more than 80 countries and contains almost 390 production sites in Europe, Asia, Australia, America, and Africa. The company has customers in more than 190 countries.

At the end of 2017, the company hired around 115,500 workers. The company developed its international enterprises in Asia, for example in places near Nanjing and Shanghai, China and Mangalore, India.

The investment analysts suggest buying or holding stock in BASF SE.

Bottom line

These European undervalued stocks are the companies with good competitive power, with stable balance sheets, low debts, and good cash flows. They are the cheapest in the same industry but the range of their increase can be huge and hence the profit along with it. Anyway, they are undervalued now for different reasons. That can be re-structuring, investing in researching, or something else. Everything influences the stock price as investors already know.

Traders-Paradise chooses these three European undervalued stocks based on their market potential.

17th October 2019
European ETFs: Invest in the World’s Biggest Regional Economy

by Guy Avtalyon

European ETFs give a large diversification in mutual funds and with a bit of the fee. If you buy one security as a foreign investor you will have exposure to a lot of firms in the EU. Why Europe is interesting for investors? First of all, some of the biggest companies are located in Europe. So, it is a great opportunity for foreign investors to invest in EU ETFs. The European Union factors about 20% of the world GDP, therefore it looks like one of the most valuable investment targets in the world.

Benefits of Investing in European ETFs

Europe is one of the best-shielded business areas around the globe. To be honest, there are still some risks after the crisis in 2009. The companies in Eastern Europe have better growth potential than Western Europe. Anyway, having EU ETFs in your investment portfolio is a great choice and I’ll try to explain why that is.

First of all, in Europe are some of the most successful companies. For example, a lot of US investors are very interested in them. Moreover, Europe is consists of several areas. That makes European ETFs very good for diversifying a stock portfolio without the risk which developing markets may give. The added quality is that the EU is honestly low-risk. Just compare it with Asia, for example.

Many investors are now attempting to enter the European Union market through mergers and acquisitions. Also, by investing in its main businesses. The EU is, in fact, welcoming foreign investment.

Here is full information that will help investors about investing in European Union.

Risks of investing

Of course, there are some risks involved.

The main risk is that the members of the EU are very connected and dependent on each other. At first glance, nothing is bad with that but if a crisis occurs it will spillover among them, and business in the union may fall down like a house of cards. As I mentioned above, Wester Europe economies have slower growth and they may seem less attractive for investing. Especially for investors who want more risky investments.

Where to find: Top European ETFs

MSCI European ETF (NYSE: VGK)

Vanguard is available in Europe. Its European funds are based in Ireland. Vanguard allows non-residents to buy their ETFs/funds through a broker. So you can not directly do it through them. Vanguard’s ETF is a good option but it involves currency exchange. You can simply open an account with any broker with access to the NYSE ARCA. That is the stock exchange where Vanguard ETFs trade. The rest is simple, buy it just like with any other international stock.

iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF (EWU)

A lot of investors favor “tracker” funds. They allow you low-cost investments. But not all tracker funds are low cost. Moreover, the fund charge is not all you pay, you will have to pay the broker or fund platform too. The good news is that as your portfolio grows the broker will charge you less on a sliding scale.

SPDR DJ Euro STOXX 50 ETF (NYSE: FEZ)

FEZ includes the 50 biggest EU companies but the large-caps from countries that don’t use the euro, including the UK, Switzerland, and Sweden, are not included. But, FEZ’s portfolio includes companies from France and Germany. As a difference from other EU funds, it does not hedge euro exposure.

European ETFs provide the most comfortable approach to get exposure to European markets and the easiest access to invest in Europe. In comparison to buying foreign stocks directly, it is for sure.

Further, European ETFs are an excellent method to diversify your stock portfolio with low-risk investments. To be honest, I have to say that European ETFs will not suit every investor. Risk seeking investors wouldn’t like them, or for younger investors, European markets are not volatile enough. Yes, there is pretty much a lack of excitement.

26th September 2019
The German market is overflowed by fears of a slowdown

2 min read

by Gorica Gligorijevic

German fears of stock markets’ slowdown rose causes the fear, that the whole country may slip into a recession. The day before the US announced its decision to delay part of tariffs on Chinese imports.

The trigger in the German’s markets was news that the country’s economy declined 0.1% in the second quarter of this year in comparison with the prior quarter. According to some analysts, the fears are caused due to global trade conflicts coupled with difficulties in the auto industry. The decline of 0.1% was just a trigger to show them.

“Data showing that the German economy contracted in the second quarter reignited fears of a global recession, dampening demand for riskier assets such as equities,” said Fiona Cincotta, market analyst at City Index

Many European markets are down.

Germany’s DAX was down 1.5% at 11,575. The CAC 40 in France dropped 1.4% to 5,288. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was 1% below at 7,181.

The US Wall Street was ready for similar drops at the bell end with Dow futures and the wider S&P 500 futures falling 0.9%.

Tuesday was one of the better days in the markets. The US Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced that the US will delay the tariffs on some of China’s products like consumers goods. But some sorts of fish or baby seats are entirely removed. The new trade policy will be on scene until December 15.

European shares stabilized on Thursday

But prior there was a brutal sell-off. It was fired by overall fears of a recession. The investors were expecting central banks would relax monetary policy and calm nervous markets.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index dropped at 0828 GMT hitting the point very close to six-month lows.

The trading volumes in Italy, Austria and Greece were closed for a holiday. Almost all European markets moved to the negative area.

London’s FTSE 100. underperformed its European rivals, burdened down by oil main and some stocks that traded out of dividend right.

In profits news, strong numbers from beer maker Carlsberg In Denmark (CARLb.CO) and shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) pushed stocks of these Danish companies to more high-priced.

Drillisch and United Internet slipped below after the German telecom company lessened its profit outlook.

Here is a short summary of EU markets:

UK FTSE 100 -1.7% hits two month low
German DAX -2.3% hits a four-month low
French CAC -2.2% hits one week low
Italy MIB -2.8% hits two month low
Spain IBEX -2.2% hits two month low

The German DAX again broke the 200-day moving average, the last low was in June. It stopped at the 50% retracement of the rally in December. DAX primarily have to survive on that level. If don’t, the market may be very violent. But if Angela Merkel announces a 180 on deficit spending, the investors on the German stock market will have hope.

15th August 2019