Insider Monkey

15 Top Performing European Stocks So Far in 2024

Ramish Cheema
9 min read

In This Article:

In this piece, we will take a look at the 15 top performing European stocks so far in 2024. If you want to skip our overview of the European economy and the stock climate, then you can skip ahead to 5 Top Performing European Stocks So Far in 2024.

Over the course of the past couple of years, the claim of American exceptionalism — the theory that the United States is a one of a kind country in the world — has gained traction. This is because ever since the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the global way of life, the world's economy has been in a constant state of turmoil. This turmoil came to a head in 2022 in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine which came at a time when central banks worldwide were raising interest rates to battle inflation.

Back then, most analysts and pundits believed that all major economies in the world would undergo a recession. However, while this appeared to be coming true for European economies, the U.S. nevertheless remained resilient. This is true until today, as while America's economy grew in the fourth quarter of 2023, Europe is continuing to falter.

The continent, and European stock woes, are evident when we take a look at Europe's biggest economy Germany. The latest bit of trouble in the European export powerhouse relates to the German real estate sector. Real estate stocks all over the world have struggled in the wake of high interest rates since not only do large developers require substantial capital to build new projects, but the demand of their products is also dependent on bank financing. Fresh data from the VDP banking association shows that German commercial property prices tanked by a painful 12.1% in the fourth quarter of 2023 to mark an accelerated drop over the full year's 10.2% drop. Overall, the German economy shrank by 0.3% sequentially during the fourth quarter, and overall, the economy shrank by a similar amount despite the fact that it managed to avoid a technical recession during the fourth quarter.

So, how does this poor economic performance translate into stock market performance? Well, investors on the other side of the pond, i.e. the United Kingdom, are waiting for comments from the Bank of England. Interest rates in the U.K. are among the highest in the developing world, and since inflation in Britain has been particularly tough to stamp out, the BoE is expected to keep rates fixed at current levels until it's certain that prices are starting to come down. Consequently, the flagship FTSE 100 index is down by 1.78% year to date while the mid cap FTSE 250 is also down by a similar 1.71%.

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