Summary
• The Ashburton Global Strategy Fund priced for the last time in October returned +1.11% between 29 September 2021 and 27 October 2021.
• Developed market equities had a strong month, clawing back most of the negative returns experienced in September. All global equity sub-sectors posted positive returns over the month of October, with the Technology sector performing the best with a return of 7.4%, followed by the Consumer Discretionary sector with a return of 6.9%. Returns out of China were also positive, after many months of negative returns. Global equities, as measured by the FTSE All-World Total Return Index returned 5% for October.
• On a year-to-date and one month basis, growth stocks are making a solid comeback and are outperforming value stocks.
• It was another bumpy and negative month for global bonds, which remain under pressure since the start of the year, with government bonds (as measured by the FTSE WorldBIG Index) ending the month -0.3%.
• All underlying components, except for global bonds and the China specialist fund, contributed positively to performance, although the underlying equity managers lagged the strongly rallying market.
• Global property had a particularly strong month and the AB Global Real Estates Securities Fund returned 5.12%.
• From the rest of the equity managers, the deep value manager Lyrical had the best return albeit underperforming the FTSE All-World Equity Index with a return of 3.9%, after clawing back some of the negative returns seen earlier in the month.
• Epoch and Mundane also underperformed the benchmark for the month returning 2.8% and 2.3% respectively.
• The bond exposure via the Colchester Global Bond Fund had a negative return for October of -0.5%, underperforming the FTSE WorldBIG Index.
• The small exposure to China via the Cederberg Greater China Fund had another negative month, returning -1.6%.
• 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, and there have been no changes made from a tactical asset allocation perspective.