Markets

In the Allianz Retire+ five phases of retirement, wedged between phases three, ‘liberation’, and four, ‘reorientation’, comes ‘disenchantment’. It is often the most challenging and important for an adviser to manage. In a webinar last week (September 8), Alex Brown, Allianz Retire + senior business development manager, chaired the third in a series for advisers…

Invesco Australia recently hosted the “if rates rise, will your portfolio float” webinar, aimed at advisers and investors that are looking to position their portfolios for a rising yield environment. The webinar was led byAshley O’Connor, head of investment strategy, together with Jack Cunningham and Kevin Egan, senior portfolio managers of the senior secured loans…

With reporting season over, one would assume markets would have been under strain amid the disruption and pandemic forced restrictions. On the contrary, equity markets have never been better, rising almost 15 per cent in the last six months in Australia. Pendal’s head of equities, Crispin Murray, has released a research note touching on four…

Morgan Stanley Investment Management has reiterated its focus on investing in those seeking out those companies that are delivering high and sustainable returns on operating capital. In their recent ‘Global Equity Observer’ update, William Lock Head of International Equity, reiterated the power of compounding returns and the characteristics his team continue to covet.  Every professional…

While there has been much talk about renewed inflation and its harm to portfolios, thanks largely to the US economic recovery, the consensus is this will be transitory. That may be wrong. PIMCO, the world’s largest fixed income manager, believes that there is more risk in the current inflation bogey than the market is anticipating….

As covered in Ishan Dan’s article here, the Responsible Investment Association of Australia (RIAA)recently released their Benchmark Report for 2021. It is somewhat of a temperature check on the investment management industry with the RIAA increasingly standing out as the leader in responsible investment accreditation and assessment. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics some…

Investors face a very uncertain environment today, with the COVID-19 pandemic still playing out, geopolitical tensions and a global economy characterised by low growth and high debt. It’s a good time for investors to remind themselves that diversification is an investment principle that never goes out of style, and that the among the most effective…

The environment has seemingly never been better for investors. After an incredible collapse in 2020 sharemarkets have staged a remarkable comeback, with the likes of the Nasdaq Composite Index near-doubling from their lowest 2020 levels. Buoyed by monetary policy, excess savings and in many cases, investors stuck at home with little else to do but…

Sharemarkets, excluding dividends, are now as much as 70 per cent higher than their March 2020 bottoms. Overseas the recovery has been even stronger, with the Nasdaq Composite Index having doubled over the same period, and the S&P 500 having delivered over 50 record closes already this year. Complacency is now kicking in, according to…

When talking about emerging markets, one thing naturally comes to mind: China. China  is by far the largest EM economy; in fact it’s the second largest economy in the world, just behind the US. And this poses a problem for EM indices with almost half of all emerging market ETF assets being invested in Chinese…

Sydney Airports (ASX:SYD) – As any investor would expect, the monopoly provider (and the nation’s major gateway) has had a challenging half-year, posting a widening loss, while a takeover offer hangs in the balance. Just days before its result, the board knocked back an $8.45-a-share takeover offer from a group of pension funds, saying it…

Dividends drag market lower, record trade balance on commodities The ASX200 (ASX: XJO) finished around 0.6% lower as a swathe of dividend payments were extracted from the market. On a second level it was broadly mixed with materials and mining falling 2.5%, whilst staples and healthcare were both down similarly, around 1% each. The impact of dividend payments and ex-dividend…