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Institutional investors are likely to keep their cash in fixed interest this year and may even top up their holdings, despite talk of a shift into equities, said HSBC Global Asset Management's product specialist, fixed income, Brian Dunnett.

Baillie Gifford's European equity specialist Tom Coutts said the Italian election was not a game-changer for markets, but has thrown up opportunities for stockpickers as uncertainty hit share prices.

The worst of the eurozone debt crisis is over, according to Alliance Trust Investments' Fiona MacRae, as capital flows in the region start to reverse.

Europe is on the road to economic recovery as Ireland becomes the first country to emerge from the financial crisis, according to T. Rowe Price's European equity manager Dean Tenerelli.

It is hard not to feel ever so slightly sorry for the pointy heads over at the Bank of England as they contemplate what to do next about the various quantitative easing programmes, including the Funding for Lending scheme.