Aluminum and Gold Lead European Sub-Industry Performance

'Aluminum and Gold???' you say, doubtfully.  And your instincts are correct. At first glance, the ranked performance of sub-industries in MSCI Europe puts these two materials groups in the top three so far in 2014:



Closer inspection reveals, however, that each of these sub-industries is comprised of just one company-- neither of which looks very appealing when we take into account a longer term view of relative performance:




Incidentally, neither of these companies passes our knowledge leaders screen as a result of two factors:
1. too little investment in intellectual property and
2. insufficient margins (gross margin in the case of Norsk Hydro and FCF margin with respect to Randgold)