France

French President Nicolas Sarkozy threatened to exit the euro unless German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed the EU's €750bn safety net for the single currency.

Gordon Brown believes the large economies are close to agreeing a global tax on banks which would cost the financial sector billions of pounds a year - but he played down expectations of a final deal at the next G20 meeting in June.

Baring Europe Select Trust manager Williams foresees increased interest in low-valued European companies

Thames River manager plans to hedge against a 10% drop in trending markets

Aegon manager warns of possible knock-on effect from struggling European countries

London's financial community feels it is fighting a war on two fronts: the prospect of being hamstrung by pending EU measures and suffering targeted attacks from the government at home.

The past eight months have been remarkable for European equity markets.

British pride has taken a knock recently as both Germany and France this month reported their economies had expanded for the second consecutive quarter. Britain is pinning its hopes on the Q4 of 2009 bringing an end to its recession.

National pride was dented when Germany and France posted positive economic growth in the second quarter yet the UK remained in recession. Since then the UK has suffered the ignominy of seeing expectations for the third quarter outturn scaled back as industrial...

There has been a sea change in the climate for investing in equities since the beginning of the year. In January, credit spreads were pricing in a ‘Second Great Depression', banks were bust on mark-to-market accounting and companies had shut factories...