Magellan bucks downward market trend for financials
Magellan Financial Group is the only listed financial firm to have reported positive returns in the first half of 2020 with returns of 3.1%.
Since the start of 2020 to 30 June, the asset manager has seen its share price rise by 3.1% compared to losses of 10.4% by the ASX 200 over the same period.
This was a strong rebound for the company which had previously lost 45% in March’s market crash.
Earlier in the year, Magellan fund manager Hamish Douglass said he did not consider the markets falls in March as the next Global Financial Crisis and was feeling “excited” about the prospect for cheap valuations.
In an announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange in July, the firm said its average funds under management for the full year 2019/20 was $95.5 billion, up from $75.8 billion a year ago. It received $249 million in net inflows during June 2020.
According to FE Analytics, within the Australian Core Strategies universe, the flagship Magellan Global Equity fund returned 0.7% over the six months compared to losses of 4.6% by the global equity sector.
The worst-performing listed financial was Challenger which lost 44% over the same period. The firm recently launched an equity raising of $300 million to provide flexibility to enhance earnings.
Elsewhere, Macquarie Group lost 12%, Perpetual lost 25%, Centrepoint Alliance lost 30% and IOOF lost 35%.
Out of the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank was the best-performing company with losses of 11% while ANZ and National Australia Bank lost 25% and Westpac lost 26%.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
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