Europe: All news is bad news

Europe provided a mixed bag of good news and bad for the quarter, but investor perception has been almost entirely negative for all news. Beneath the negative feeling, fund managers believe they are seeing a strengthening of fundamentals, but this didn't stop the markets from punishing biotech stocks, as the BioCentury London index finished down 22% and the BioCentury Europe index lost 10%.

The issue for the group now is whether there's enough good news teed up for the rest of the year both to provide some gains for investors and to reopen the public equity markets - and whether investors are inclined to listen...