July was mainly dominated by a flow of news related to politics in various countries. On the equity markets, prices ended the month relatively unchanged (+1.50% overall), though with significant differences from so-called growth sectors, which weighed on the overall market performance, as opposed to more defensive ones. Thus, after reaching new record highs in mid-July, share prices followed a downward trend due to concerns about the state of the world’s economy in general and in the US in particular, affecting the information technology sector for example.