Markets

US-based fund manager Loomis Sayles, founded in 1926, has delivered a respectable return for its clients for 2021, after it smashed the index both for the quarter and the year. Global markets returned 6.0% over the last quarter and 25.8% over the year; Loomis exceeded on both, with an 8.2% return for the quarter and…

Martin Currie has released its Global Emerging Markets 2022 Outlook research note, which gives investors enough reasons to be invested in 2022 and what to expect for the year ahead. If 2021 was anything to go by, the market learnt that Covid-19 is here to stay with an ongoing health impact. This would ensure a…

The 40/60, or balanced, portfolio has seen a growing stream of eulogies as “experts” the world over suggest it is broken. The reason, they surmise, is the diversification-based investment approach relying too much on long-duration assets, and the threat of interest rate hikes seeing bond and equity market correlation move to one. While there are…

Investors seeking alternatives to high-priced equity and low-yielding fixed income investments are increasingly turning to Australia’s private debt market for attractive risk-adjusted returns and capital protection. Australia’s private debt market is entering the mainstream – both as a funding option for Australian businesses and as an asset class for income-conscious investors. Renewed interest in this…

If you only looked at the share prices of global equity managers GQG Partners (ASX:GQG) and Magellan Financial Group (ASX:MFG), you would be forgiven for thinking they were groups heading in very different directions. Yet the annual updates delivered by their high-profile chief investment officers, respectively Rajiv Jain and Hamish Douglass, highlighted a few similarities….

The surprises over the last 12 months should give some indication of the significant uncertainty facing investors in 2022, with forecasts for global GDP growth and inflation having a high chance of coming in well above or below consensus. Market expectations for 2022 have moved significantly in recent months, on the whole pointing to a…

Specialist alternatives investment research firm Evergreen Consultants has released a research report on AAM Investment Group’s Diversified Agriculture Fund (ADAF), attaching a “Highly Commended” rating. This is the highest rating in the rating scale, meaning the fund has scored consistently very well across all areas of Evergreen Ratings’ research and analysis framework. As a result,…

Platinum Asset Management’s latest quarterly update makes for difficult reading, with every fund excluding the Japan product underperforming the market over both the last three and 12 months. The story has been almost identical to that of Magellan, with both firms taking a “conservative” approach amid “overvalued” markets. Where Magellan (ASX: MFG) has erred on…

Australia’s leading micro-investing app, Raiz, is not so micro, having finally busted through the $1 billion funds under management mark. Last week, Raiz (ASX: RZI) delivered its quarterly (December 2021) numbers, which had some gleaming highlights. The company reported total revenue up 82.9 per cent year-on-year, which was a huge increase to $4.5 million in…

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…

Well-known for its market leading, retiree-focused, franking-credit-driven Australian equity income funds, asset manager Plato Investment Management has gone green. Powered by the same detailed quantitative analysis that has driven tits portfolios since inception, the group this week announced the launch of the Plato Global Net Zero Hedge Fund. The fund will be “managed with a…

Uncertainty has returned to the market after a bumper 2020, fuelled by persistent inflation and a pandemic that never really went away. But in its latest alternatives outlook, JPMorgan warns that investors “aren’t seeing the forest for the trees.” “Up close, the ‘trees’ in the 2022 outlook are clear,” writes Anton Pil, global head of…