Markets

Amidst a healthy uptick in investment returns and consumer confidence, the ESG sector is coming to grips with increasing concern about greenwashing, which has now become the major deterrent for investors – up from 45 per cent in 2022 to 52 per cent today.

Asset managers have quickly ascertained the region’s growing appetite for alternative investments will not abate any time soon, but liquidity and gate provisions will need to improve.

The rise of passive investment makes tremendous sense, especially when the index being tracked is on the large cap side. Move down the index, however, and it can pay to have someone sorting out the winners from the losers.

NZ punches above its weight in many sectors, with deeptech the latest to surge on the back of a global mindset, an abundant talent pool and VC enterprise that knows where the right ideas are and how to propagate them.

Private markets are worth around $14 trillion globally, ASIC believes. It’s not sure, and that uncertainty hints at the wider problem – private markets, and their effect on public ones, is still largely a mystery.

Value stocks are hit harder in market drawdowns but come out of them faster and harder, according to research from Pzena Investment Management.

With many economists expecting the Reserve Bank to start cutting interest rates in early 2025, returns on term deposits could feel the pinch. Private credit is an alternative, but those pursuing this investment option will need to do their homework.

Australian investors are looking past the allure of franking credits and moving towards more unbiased diversification, with ETFs providing a cheap, liquid and highly available access point.

Long the bailiwick of institutional investors, private markets secondaries are now trickling down to the wealth space as the market grows and new vehicles expand access.

The phenomenal growth of private equity’s big players has left a yawning gap in the lower-mid market, which enterprising players like Fortitude Investment Partners are all-too keen to step in to and take advantage of.

With rates well and truly crested and bonds once again showing their strength as a defensive ballast mechanism, Capital Group believes the time might be right for investors to swap out cash-like investment vehicles for investment grade credit.

Idiosyncratic regulations around healthcare product marketing in Australia has led to an under-represented market, which in turn presents an opportunity for savvy investors according to Perennial Partners.