QE dispenses unwanted results to Europe stock buyers

London

MARIO Draghi's stimulus programme hasn't quite succeeded at unleashing the desired animal spirits across Europe. Here's the evidence: six months in, and 96 per cent of companies in the Euro Stoxx 50 Index have actually become cheaper relative to earnings.

The European Central Bank's plan to flood the financial system with cash by purchasing bonds was supposed to ignite the same celebration of risk-taking it did in the US six years ago. In fact, the opposite has happened, culminating in as much as US$526 billion of share value being wiped out last month.

The failure of European quantitative easing to impr…