Brexit: the European equities view

John Bennett : The Brexit debate has and will dominate the headlines, but no-one really knows what will happen. I have a personal view and that is that Britain will vote to stay. However I would not position for a binary outcome and my portfolios have not been restructured in expectation of a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ vote.

Hypothetically, if Britain decides to leave and this leads to panic that weakens sterling, this would be reflationary for the UK economy. This would be helpful in a world that is threatened by deflation. In this situation we would turn our attention to the potential beneficiaries of that currency weakness. For example, I would expect some immediate stock-specific opportunities within UK exporters.

Having said that, this is a pure speculation at this stage and as noted, I will not be repositioning my portfolios at this point.

Nick Sheridan : Brexit is just one of a list of market worries that includes the refugee crisis, Spanish politics and China. In my opinion, however, it seems likely that these concerns have already largely been priced into markets. The areas we think are most important on a wider basis are the strength of the US economy, the dollar and the potential for Chinese currency devaluation. If the US economy avoids recession, which the latest manufacturing data suggests it will, and the Chinese do not devalue the yuan, then, in my view, European equities can still make progress, regardless of the uncertainty around the Brexit referendum.

Tim Stevenson : While polls on the EU referendum suggest that the UK will stay, the increased stress over migrants and economies could make for a nervous time. It may seem odd to those not living in the UK, but there is widespread support for an exit among Conservative politicians, many of whom would prefer that the UK jumped into a time machine and went back 150 years. The “outs” maintain that a short transition will ensue, before the UK economy returns to sunnier climes.

In my view, claims that an EU exit will not have negative consequences for the UK economy are naïve. Whichever view prevails, uncertainty caused by the vote may hinder any signs of real progress for markets for the time being. We are likely to remain quite underweight the UK relative to the index until the situation is resolved.