Growth assets

March stands out as being one of the most difficult periods for investors in a generation. On the one hand, bond markets send fixed income to its worst return in more decades, and on the other, equity markets were sold off broadly on valuation concerns as bond yields ended a forty-year downward trend.

“Patience is a virtue” may well be the best way to explain the performance of the Australian sharemarket in the March quarter.

During March, Australia’s sharemarket unexpectedly claimed pole position against the majority of the world’s larger and more developed markets.

The move away from so-called ‘growth stocks’ which began in Q3 2020 is set to continue, with the winter for ‘value investing’ set to thaw according to Colin Graham of Robeco’s Muti-Asset team.

“We all think we know China, but you won’t think of China the same way after this presentation” explained James Dunn, host of The Inside Network’s Equities and Growth Assets Symposium held in April. He was introducing Lewis Prescott, international CEO of Mingshi Investment Management, a multi-billion-dollar quantitative equity manager that recently launched in Australia….

The passive vs. active debate remains alive and well, particularly in the larger company universe, where being different to the index is quite a challenge, and in many cases, a career risk. The consistent standout among the quarterly passive vs. active reports, however, has been the Australian smaller company sector. Globally recognised as companies valued…

Magellan Financial Group (ASX:MFG) has remained in the headlines on a near daily basis, with continued uncertainty around the return of CIO and Founder Hamish Douglass. With outflows in recent months exceeding $20 billion, which is more than most fund managers in Australia hope to manage, naturally the attention has been heavily focused on the…

‘A thief in the night’ was the title of Stephen Hayes’ session at last weeks’ Equities and Growth Assets Symposium hosted by The Inside Network. Tasked with confronting the most significant and pressing issue facing investors and asset allocators around the world, Hayes managed to summarise it quite simple ‘pricing power’ is what really matters….

Venture capital has been one of the most popular and profitable sectors in which to operate and invest in the last few years. Traditionally, and ultimately still, the primary domain of the ultra-wealthy, pension funds and statutory investors, the sector has delivered returns exceeding 20 per cent a year for many years now. Private equity…

Just a few short months ago, we were asking the question “are equities too expensive?” The threat of rate hikes then switched the rhetoric to “why aren’t bond yields higher?” But now investors face an even more challenging question, according to Kerry Craig, global market strategist at JP Morgan Asset Management: “what do I do…

Thematic investing has been among the most powerful and popular trends in the last several decades. The idea of identifying the next Apple or Amazon is one of the main reasons many people get into investing, and likely the biggest creator of wealth in recent history. The last few months have reiterated that investing solely…

Australia’s leading sustainable equity manager, Australian Ethical Investment (ASX: AEF), will list its high-conviction fund as an exchange-traded (ETF) version, later this week. The move comes following a spate of active ETF conversions, such as the Hyperion Global Growth Companies Fund (ASX: HYGG) which was converted to an ETF. It now offers investors the opportunity…