STOCKS NEWS EUROPE-Goldman backs "long" FTSE and DAX trades

Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS-PB - news) ' equity strategists back trades favouring "long" positions betting on further gains on Britain's FTSE 100 (FTSE: ^FTSE - news) and Germany's DAX equity indexes against "short" bets against Switzerland's SMI (KOSDAQ: 100660.KQ - news) and the pan-European STOXX 600 indexes.

The first of these ideas is to go "long" on the FTSE 100 while going "short" on the Swiss market, with Goldman arguing that the British market is more geared to an improvement in the global economy.

The Swiss SMI equity index has been an outperformer since the start of 2013, rising 15.5 percent to beat gains of 12 percent on the DAX (Xetra: ^GDAXI - news) and 9 percent on the FTSE 100, while the STOXX 600 has risen 10 percent.

However, Goldman writes that going forward, the FTSE 100 looks a better bet.

"As we highlighted before, the Swiss market looks expensive versus the FTSE 100. Moreover, we see the UK as more geared to an improvement in the global cycle and less vulnerable to a relative sell-off in consumer staples," Goldman writes in its strategy note.

Similarly, it backs going "long" on the DAX and "short" on the STOXX 600.

"The DAX tends to have higher operating leverage than the market, and should therefore gain more as global growth improves. Further, we expect domestic demand in Germany to outgrow other euro area countries," it writes.

Reuters messaging rm://sudip.kargupta.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net