Sweeney, the head of the firm’s Multi-Asset Active range of funds, said centrist Emmanuel Macron’s success in the first round of the voting led him to add to his exposure.
He hopes that equities will perform stronger as political risks subside and doubled the exposure across the range of funds from 3% to 6% in response.
“If you look at them in terms of value they are cheaper than the US,” Sweeney said.
“Earnings are picking up for the first time in seven years, some political risks are dissipating and a lot of people are coming around to the conclusion that they could increase further.”
It is widely believed that Macron will become the youngest ever French president following the second round of voting on 7 May, beating his far-right rival Marine Le Pen.
As the political hurdles of 2017 are overcome, Sweeney said he hoped to beat the crowd by investing now before prices surged in the summer.
Echoing Sweeney’s bullish tone on Europe was Ben Kumar, investment manager at 7IM who also revealed he had significantly increased exposure to his range of funds.
He said: “Now, with the hurdle of the first round cleared, and the odds looking better for a market positive result, we are looking to increase European equity in all of the portfolios.
“Last week, we took profits on half of our US inflation swap position, and we are using the cash raised in varying degrees to fund the European equity allocation.”
