Enlarging prospects for investor returns

Emerging europe

This month's EU expansion should open up plenty of opportunity for investors but the real boost to markets should come when the economies take the next step and adopt the euro

The significant gains experienced by the stock markets in Greece, Portugal and Ireland in the late 1990s in adopting the euro are fresh in the minds of investors, who have been eager to participate in the recent EU enlargement day: 1 May 2004. However, the recent surge of frantic buying into emerging European equities, and in particular emerging European funds, suggests many investors may be more hopeful of quick wins rather than longer-term gains. Enlargement day certainly represented a significant step for those countries joining the EU: the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, H...