During an ongoing financial crisis most would argue that it will be a bank - maybe a greek one. Right, the Piraeus Bank is only 10-15% above the low of 2009.
But another stock hit its 2009 low already - Nokia. Suprise, surprise! If a industry stock outside of the main focus of the market (which currently is the financial crisis) during an economic recovery has such a bad performance, than something really strange is going on in the company. Take the market signs seriously despite the fact that a "double bottom" discussion may give support to the stock in the near term.
Nokia-Chart
Which sector was seen as the main victim of the crisis? Right, the automobile industry. Sentiment was depressed in 2009, but the sector recovered strongly. See how depressed the automobile sentiment was:
Obviously, investors were irritated how to rate the sector because the sector performance was heavily influenced by the movements of the Volkswagen stock. But take a look at Daimler, BMW and others and then you can imagine how much performance investors have lost due to their pessimism. Sentiment matters!
Sentiment has improved recently and automobiles are no longer a hidden gem.
If you want to follow sentiment shifts in the European equity sectors, join the sentix survey or have a look at http://www.sentix-index.com/
The Nokia price chart of the last 16 months looks surprisingly similar to the 2002-2004 period. Back then the stock didn´t participate in the first leg of the bull market and even broke the 2002 lows in the summer of 2004 before it joined the bull run.
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