Markets

“Iron ore remains a commodity that polarises the market” according to Ausbil’s local investment team. Among the stable of strategies is the Ausbil Global Resources Fund which, as the name suggests, must have a strong view on almost every major commodity. 2021 has been dominated by talk of another commodity super cycle. Buoyed by massive…

After being a dirty word for close to a decade, ‘value’ investing has been back in vogue, for a few months at least anyway. Spurred on by the approval of COVID-19 vaccines in late 2020 the ‘recovery’ trade which involved increasing exposure to cyclical sectors like energy and banks has paid off in the short-term…

September begins with a loss, GDP surprises again, Metcash sales weaken After delivering an eleventh straight month of gains by finishing 1.9% higher in August, the ASX200 (ASX: XJO) fell 0.1% to begin September. Given the busy month that was August market volatility will likely recede as investors turn to the outlook for vaccination rates and border…

Over the past 20 years, UK corporate earnings growth has been up and down, but largely in an overall decline. This gloomy picture has stuck around. Fast-forward to today, and the storm is clearing. Following the pandemic, already beaten-down stocks are in much better shape than before, putting the UK on a path for a…

You could be forgiven for thinking 2020 was a difficult year for property investors. The onset of the pandemic impacting all asset classes in unforeseen ways, no more so than property. As we have seen in other asset classes, there is still little certainty in what lies ahead beyond lockdowns, social distancing and the reopening…

Specialist property-based fund manager, Trilogy Funds, added another two properties to its industrial portfolio in June and July, with a third scheduled to settle in August, highlighting the soaring demand and underlying strength of industrial property across Australia. As part of the growing Trilogy Industrial Property Trust the fund manager finalised the purchase of a…

As investors put more and more money into ESG-focused products, so too are they getting more sophisticated in their selection – in both what they are favouring and what they are avoiding. Perhaps they should consider avoiding dividend stocks and funds. Research from Morningstar, published last week (August 26), using work by Sustainalytics, its specialist…

When the going gets tough. As a financial adviser responsible for allocating your clients’ capital, COVID-19 presented sudden and unexpected challenges for most asset classes. Risk assets took an alarming hit but rebounded strongly, while defensive assets were mixed, with bonds performing weakly and cash not worth mentioning. Wherever your clients were invested at the…

Value investing, for all its history as a robust investment strategy, has been one of the worst-performing ways to invest money over the last few years. Fair enough, the coronavirus has thrown a spanner in the works by wreaking mayhem on investment markets, but value investing still hasn’t outperformed. Since March this year, value managers…

The 2010s was somewhat of a torrid time for the hedge fund sector, as the pressure for lower costs and more transparency collided with a period of weaker returns. Institutional research consultant bfinance this week published a white paper, titled “How to build a hedge fund portfolio,” that offers some unique institutional insights for the…

The easiest call to make in 2021 is that the market is overvalued, or for those preferring hyperbole, suggest that everything is in a ‘bubble’. Whilst there is no doubt some assets and stocks that are trading well above their fair value, to suggest that everything is overvalued may well be a stretch. It’s an…

Netwealth (ASX: NWL) – The leading platform provider delivered a FY21 net profit of $54.1 million, which was up 24 per cent, but below the analysts’ consensus forecast, of $55 million. Shares in the stock dropped by 4.8 per cent, to $14.24, but were down as much as 10 per cent during the day, as…