Elections in the UK on Thursday, swiftly followed by general elections in Greece, French presidential election and local elections in Italy and Germany caused a significant sell off of European equities on Friday leaving almost all major indices down by the close. Investors concerned over fears that the incumbent parties, looking to implement austerity measures, may be unseated by opponents promising to spend more which could exacerbate the sovereign debt crisis.

Our own portfolio struggled this week with major losses for Fenner, Cookson and BG while BATS continues to hover around the stop loss figure. Once again it was down to Diageo to buck the trend with a gain of 1.59 after good Q3 results.