Share opportunities offer reassurance for bottom-up investors

ON NORTH AMERICA

Martin Currie's Tom Walker says investors can find value in US stockmarkets despite a dicey macroeconomic outlook.

As a volatile year nears its close, recent weeks have brought little relief for equity investors. Of all the spectres to have spooked a nervous market in 2010, European sovereign debt has been the most persistent. In November, it reared its head once more, as the ECB’s bailing out of Ireland served to heighten concerns about Portugal and Spain. But despite taking fright at frequent intervals, most global equity markets have made decent progress this year – and the US has been to the fore. In sterling terms, the MSCI North America index is up more than 12% for the first 11 months of the y...