MSCI

Technology has been the best performing sector for 10 years. And it has outperformed for the correct reason: it makes more money. The past decade, the tech sector saw its profits – as measured by earnings per share (EPS) – swell more than any other sector. Making matters better for tech, the rate of profit…

As investors start to look past the pandemic, the economic cost and scarring from Covid-19 has been significant. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says “unlike the 2008 crisis, emerging markets and developing economies are expected to suffer more scarring than advanced economies”. In the same way that the US and Australia were able to provide…

Factor manager Research Affiliates appears to be charging in where value managers are still nervous to tread, with a big call on the state of global markets and where the main opportunity lies – UK equities. Mike Aked, Research Affiliates’ director of research for Australia, said last week (March 17) that the firm had identified…

Hamish Douglass this week presented his ‘The Year of Living Dangerously Webinar’, to thousands of investors and followers across the country. There were no crowds or pyrotechnics, just what appeared to be another Zoom call from Magellan’s Sydney offices. But what the session may have lacked in technology, it delivered in terms of content, analysis…

As is almost always the case, money talks. When a star portfolio manager suddenly resigns after recording spectacular gains, there is a good chance they have been poached within the funds management industry by a competitor waving more money. Sometimes entire teams leave altogether, or a high-profile portfolio manager may walk out, for one reason…

The departure of top performing Asia Fund manager Joseph Lai before Christmas has forced contrarian value manager Platinum Asset Management into some leadership changes. The company announced to the ASX recently that Clay Smolinksi, who is currently the Portfolio Manager of the Platinum International and Unhedged Funds would be promoted to co-CIO with Andrew Clifford….

With tensions rising in the South China Sea and regulatory pressure on the likes of Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) continuing to grow, the Chinese market is becoming an increasingly difficult one to navigate as the government seek to exert itself on a global stage.  China has long been seen as the investment darling supported by an…

In a year of bushfires, cheap money, a US Presidential election and a global pandemic, investors were exposed to a rollercoaster ride of mixed emotions, panic selling, and dizzying bouts of volatility. Reflecting back on the calendar year 2020, it is interesting to see which group of companies outperformed. Large or small caps? Tech or…

With interest rates at all-time lows, and term deposits lucky to be paying 0.5%, investors have simply been forced to look for alternative income-generating investments. The share market has obliged, but not only in the form of normal equity dividends – but in newer listed income-bearing investments. One of the most recent offerings came last…

Platinum Asset Management’s lead portfolio manager on its $5.2 billion Asia-ex Japan fund, Joseph Lai, resigned suddenly over the Christmas period and has left the firm. He had signed off, however, on a stellar year for the group’s top-performing strategy. Lai took over running the Asia ex-Japan managed fund (and the $492 million listed version)…