Fund Objective

To achieve capital growth in the long term by investing mainly in European companies excluding the U.K. The Halifax European Life and Pension funds invest directly into the Halifax European OEIC.

View on Past Performance

European bourses more than matched the falls seen in the UK and US in November, the FTSE Europe ex UK index shedding 14.9% in sterling, total return terms as volatility remained exceptionally high. Despite multi-billion euro bailouts for Fortis, Dexia and Hypo Real Estate, the banking crisis continued to rage.Markets reacted badly to the lack of coordinated action following a meeting of European leaders, exacerbated by concerns about Iceland's solvency, and a joint interest rate cut of 50bps by central banks around the also failed to stop the losses. Worsening economic continued to sap positive sentiment, wiping out the gains that followed an agreement by central banks to provide institutions with unlimited dollar funding.Icelandic investors were burned by a 66% weekly loss on the OMX Iceland All-Share index following a three-day suspension during which the country's largest banks were nationalised. Even falling interbank lending rates seemed unable to stem equity market losses until the final week, in which markets rose in anticipation that the ECB would follow the Fed and cut rates.

Fund Details