While European equities have enjoyed a strong start to 2015 in a general sense some sectors and countries have performed much better than others during the month, according to the Euromoney Smaller European Companies Index Series.
In terms of sectors within the European small cap space, financials with a 3.24% aggregate rise and basic materials at 2.76% performed well over the past month.
Having performed well in February natural resources saw a big reversal in fortunes to finish at the bottom of the pile with an overall loss of 7.19%.
Denmark listed biotech company Bavarian Nordic which rose 69.6% and UK tech company Kofax which added 66.3% to its value were the top performing companies in the index.
Turning to a breakdown by country, Italy topped league table with its 110 companies in the index rising by an average of 7.91%. Next were Portuguese companies which rose by an average of 6.38% and the Netherlands which saw a rise of 5.96%.
Companies from Greece which lost 12.42% overall fared worst, while Sweden lost -1.52% and Norway which lost 1.4% also offered up weak performance over the month.
The index rose by 1.73% as a whole during the month. It currently comprises 1350 companies across 16 European countries.
