Banks and companies raised $20bn on the world’s equity capital markets last week, in a sign of growing investor confidence that the worst of the financial crisis may be over. Activity in equity capital markets last week was exceeded only by that in the week following the rescue of investment bank Bear Stearns on March 16 – seen by many bankers and investors as the trigger for improving sentiment – according to data provider Dealogic. Some of the biggest deals came from emerging markets companies in eastern Europe and Russia.
