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Global Strategy Fund: August 2021

Summary

  • The positive performance for global equity markets continued this month, as developed markets reopen and a positive sentiment remained over COVID-19 vaccines being rolled out. However, there were concerns raised around the impact of the COVID-19 Delta variant that caused a slight damper on sentiment.
  • Value stocks underperformed growth stocks in July but remain ahead on a year-to-date basis.
  • Global equities, as measured by the FTSE All World Total Return Index, returned 0.7% for the month.
  • It was a positive month for global bonds, which have been under pressure this year, with government bonds (as measured by the FTSE WorldBIG Index) ending the month with a return of 1.3%.
  • The Ashburton Global Strategy Fund priced for the month of July, returning -0.59% between 30 June 2021 and 28 July 2021.
  • The best performing underlying manager over this period (which forms part of the equity allocation) was the AB Global Real Estate Securities Fund, which returned 3.86%.
  • From the three main equity managers, the core equity manager, Epoch was the best performer and performed in line with the benchmark for the month with a positive return of 0.68%.
  •  The deep value equity manager, Lyrical, as well as the Mundane World Leaders Fund ended in the red and underperformed the benchmark with returns of -0.41% and -0.26% respectively.
  • The China exposure via the Cederberg Greater China Equity Fund had another negative month with a return of -16.9%. Several factors contributed to recent underperformance: the market preferring companies with lower valuation multiples to those with stronger growth prospects, a sharp sell-off in companies that might be impacted by future regulation such as their technology and data centre holdings, and their minimal exposure to the education sector itself which really shook things up as the overnight decision to render the (previously) $100bn tutoring sector non-profit sent investors running for the exits as they worried about which industries might be next.
  • The Ashburton Global Strategy Fund is, however, still ahead of its SAA on a YTD basis, having returned 10.7% vs 9.6% over this period.
  • The Ashburton Global Strategy Fund reflects the macroeconomic house view of Ashburton Investments and post the implementation of the new Strategic Asset Allocation in January 2021, there have been no changes made from a tactical asset allocation perspective.