Australia added to global menu
Local fund managers are sure to cash in on a decision today by US-based research giant Morningstar to include Australian funds on its global research platform, the head of its Australian operations has claimed.
“I think there’s some very good fund managers here in Australia and now they will be exposed to a global audience more than in the past,” said Morningstar Australia chief executive Scott Cooley.
“Relative returns in this market have been quite strong compared with the major world markets including the US and Europe. The Australian market has held up quite well, and even in a professional audience there’s a tendency to see what’s working.”
Benchmark returns for Australian equities fund managers for calendar 2004 were 27.9 per cent, the highest on record, while the MSCI all country world index returned 12.1 per cent.
Thousands of Australian managed funds, ranging through most asset classes like Australian equities, fixed interest and multi-sector funds, will be exposed to the research platform’s 800 institutional clients world wide as a result of move, Cooley said.
Launched earlier this year, Morningstar Direct already has data on 100,000 investment products, including 17,000 open-ended US mutual funds, 15,000 European funds and 10,000 offshore funds. It also includes a global hedge funds data base.
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