Stock picking takes precedence over style
Fund manager investment style was irrelevant as individual manager stock-picking strategies resulted in many benefiting from the continued resurgence of the domestic equity market in July, according toInTech.
Value and growth styles did not impact the relative performance of the managers, with a mixture of both styles at the top and bottom of the survey results, says InTech Portfolio Manager Chris Thompson.
“In the current environment stock-picking is likely to be the dominant determinant of returns although other factors such as market capitalisation biases will become more important,” Thompson says.
The results, ending July 31, show the recovery of both local and international share markets on the back of strengthening global economic fundamentals, with the domestic market posting its longest consecutive positive run since January 1999.
The median manager outperformed the index by 0.1 per cent over the period, with the top performers for the month beingPerennialGrowth (5.6 per cent),Portfolio Partners(5.3 per cent) andTyndallValue (5.2 per cent).
While for the 12 months ending July 31, Tyndall Value (13.1 per cent),Lazard(11.7 per cent) and Perennial Value (11.2 per cent) were the best performing managers.
July also saw investors moving out of defensive sectors into cyclical ones, in addition to the “a mixed bag” of manager performance across both growth and value styles.
July was a strong month for international shares, with the median manager returning 5.17 per cent, while Australian bond yields also rose sharply during the month after having record lows in mid-June.
Recommended for you
Advice firms are increasing their base salaries by as much as $50k to attract talent, particularly seeking advisers with a portable book of clients, but equity offerings remain off the table.
MLC Expand has appointed retirement specialist Andrew Long to work with advisers and licensees and drive growth for its recently launched retirement solution.
Despite banks largely having exited the industry, advisers under institutional licensees are least likely to switch while 26 advisers have been appointed to a licensee more than 10 times.
Insignia Financial has shared a progress update on the acquisition by US private equity firm CC Capital as well as the departure of a long-standing director.
