Mainland, continental Europe, with huge stock markets such as Euronext and Deutsche Börse, is one of the most interesting investment spaces readily accessible to private investors here in the UK. A number of important selling points immediately jump to mind – mainland Europe boasts a huge range of impeccable blue-chip companies. The eurozone markets also offer a first-rate collection of export orientated companies with a particularly strong focus on banks (Santander), oil companies (Total) and capital equipment companies dominant in virtually every form of engineering imaginable.
The main index worth tracking is the Dow Jones EuroStoxx 50. It's the bellwether index and is probably the biggest, and the most tracked European index for eurozone blue-chip companies such as Total and Siemens. According to index developers Dow Jones, it aims "to provide a blue-chip representation of leaders in the eurozone" and includes companies from Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. Although the DJ Eurostoxx 50 is hugely popular, there are rival indices (and accompanying index tracking funds) from both the FTSE Group and MSCI, some of which include the UK.
DJ Eurostoxx 50 country weighting (%)
DJ 50 Index weighting supersector weighting (%)
