AUSTRIA'S STOCK MARKET was a sleepy backwater for most of the past decade but sprang to life last summer. The ATX index has doubled over the past 18 months, making Austria the best-performing market in western Europe. As the Wiener Börse breaks all-time highs on nearly a monthly basis, investors are streaming into Vienna. Austria has arguably become the first western European country to benefit directly from the enlargement of the European Union in May 2004.
At the end of November the ATX index broke through the psychologically important 2,000 mark for the first time after spending most of the past 10 years hovering around 1,000. Austria shares more borders with the central European countries than any other EU country and investors have latched on to Austrian industry as an obvious eastern Europe play but one that backs tried and tested western European names.
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