Finishing out a ferocious quarter

By Jeremy Gaunt, European Investment Correspondent

LONDON (Reuters) - This is the last full week of the first quarter, when markets are normally driven at least in part by window dressing as professional investors seek to make their quarterly or annual performance look good to clients.

Some window dressing, indeed, appeared to have started last week as investors improved the look of their portfolios by booking profits on assets such as gold that have been notably successful over the first three months of the year.

Hedge funds, too, will be keen to lock in profits they have made -- a strategy that may add to pressures on various markets.

But with a quarter as brutal at the latest one has been, traditional stock investors have little scope for beautification efforts.

"I would sense for the moment that everyone knows this quarter has been dreadful and we are just grateful that it is over," said Neil Dwane, chief investment officer in Europe for investors RCM.

He said some funds might sell a few losing shares that they do not want to hold when their portfolios are studied, but he questioned whether funds holding shares that were down 20 or 30 percent would bother dumping them now.

"I don't think window dressing will be very important," he said.

Not that there will be much to dress anyway.