The MSCI Europe Investable Market Index (IMI), which captures 99% of the total European equity market, closed at 1262.047 points no Wednesday, breaking its previous all-time high of 1243.685 set in April 2015. While the MSCI Europe large cap index is still trading slightly below the all-time high it hit around the same time, the all-cap index is now 1.5% higher, all thanks to the smaller companies, which constitute 14% of the index.
The small cap outperformance was also noted by Raman Aylur Subramanian, MSCI’s head of equity applied research, just after Expert investor published a separate article on the subject. “Institutional investors are increasingly allocating strategically to the small-cap equity segment, taking an ‘all-cap’ approach to their core portfolios,” he said.
The MSCI AC World index, in the meantime, also hit another all-time record this week, having passed its previous april-2015 high already in December last year thanks to the US equity Trump rally. However, even when stripping out the excessive contribution of US equities, global equities are now at a record high: on Wednesday, the MSCI World ex USA index closed 0.13% higher than its previous record set on 13 April 2015.
