English to German Bus/Financial Investment / Securities europäische Aktien

Hier geht es um die desolate Wertentwicklung der europäischen Aktien:

The utilities sector for example is labouring under high levels of debt, difficult regulation, poor growth and tough competition. But after several years of poor performance it has actually done really well this year – boosted by an interest in bond proxies at a time when the already-expensive European bond markets have been forging to new highs. This caught out a lot of active investors in Europe, ourselves included, but we are still unconvinced that there is good long-term value to be had in these utilities stocks. And active managers were also caught out when oil stocks rose following the Ukraine crisis and at the same time domestic ***counters*** like the banks fell back when economic growth as expected did not actually came through, it faltered.

Mich irritiert counters. Sind das einfach nur Titel?