LONDON : A lack of clarity on Beijing's planned stimulus measures will mean a mixed appetite for European stocks over the rest of 2023, investors say, with China the EU's third biggest export market.
Services activity in China expanded at the slowest pace in five months in June, while factory activity declined for a third straight month in June. China, the European Union's third biggest export market after the U.S. and Britain, accounts for some 15 per cent of the sales of companies in the MSCI UK and MSCI Germany indices, Barclays calculates. French, Swedish and Swiss sales to China are 10 per cent.
Emmanuel Cau, head of European equity strategy at Barclays, who in May recommended taking some profit on China-sensitive stocks, upgraded the highly China-exposed European mining sector after the government unveiled stimulus measures.But BlackRock's Chedid is not convinced policy measures, which include interest-rate cuts, will be a game-changer.
Fahad Kamal, chief investment officer at SG Kleinwort Hambros, said data from China has disappointed because expectations were too high. He continued to overweight European equities, and trimmed his exposure to China's mid market.