Tech leads first half stock gains — but the biggest winners weren't in the U.S.

The tech sector emerged as a clear winner in the first half of 2026. But while U.S. Big Tech stocks enjoyed strong gains — despite a sharp sell-off at the end of June — they were largely outperformed by their international counterparts.  

Of MSCI's sector-specific indexes, the index covering large and mid-cap emerging markets technology stocks was the best performer in the first six months of the year, with a gain of more than 90%.

Its European counterpart added 44.8%, while the U.S. version gained 19.4%.

The trend was also visible across other parts of the market. The pan-European Stoxx 600 Technology index jumped 23.4% between January and June, compared with the S&P 500 Information Technology index's 19.4% increase.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index — which counts Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft and Alphabet among its constituents — added 19.9% in the six months to June.

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