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Article: CENTRAL EUROPE: EU membership could boost equities; Markets in Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary likely to see substantial gains on the basis of expectations that they'll join up.(European Union)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Pensions & Investments
- Article date:
- December 11, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Crain Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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LONDON -- Now might be the time to invest in central Europe again.
Back in the mid-1990s, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary were the darlings of emerging markets.
But investor sentiment toward these countries took a severe knock in mid-1998 as the emerging markets crisis was exacerbated by Russia's debt default.
With these three economies now expected to join the European Union within at most 10 years, however, their investment markets and stock prices could triple in the next three years, according to Stephen Wood, head of Central European equities at Groupama Asset Management GB, London.
``It's easy to see a four- to six-times ...