Europe’s top 50 companies now in reach for investors

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Australians will be able to invest in Europe's 50 largest blue-chip companies for the first time, with ANZ's new exchange traded fund (ETF), according to ANZ ETFs.

Head of ANZ ETFs, Kris Walesby, found that while most Australians typically invested in the US when they invested globally, it still reached the top of its market, according to some economists they surveyed.

Europe was the second largest economy in the world considerable undervalued and on the way up, Walesby said.

ANZ ETFs new ETF, ESTX, tracked the 50 largest stocks, through the EURO STOXX 50, which was spread across 12 countries and excluded the UK.

It offered investors the opportunity to expand their growth potential and have greater diversification, he added.

"[In Europe] GDP levels are back up to the same levels as Australia and America and unemployment is going down, while other lead indicators like manufacturing and industrials are up," Walesby said.

"The EURO STOXX 50 started in the late 90s, after the Euro began. Since then it became the second biggest equity index in the world. It includes companies like BMW, L'Oreal, SAP, [and Louis Vuitton] all Australian household names, but based in Europe", he said

Those global names had also become household names in countries like China too, so you should expect that the 50 top companies would benefit from the next uplift in the economic cycle, Walesby said.

Based on Money Management's Investment Centre and Financial Express' data, we found that there was only one other ETF on the market that invested predominately in Europe, and excluded the UK. That was BetaShares Widsom Tree currency hedged ETF.