Giovanni Becchere
Head of Multi-Assets, ABN AMRO Investment Solutions. Based in: Paris, France
“The main story in markets continues to be inflation. Strong economic growth could eventually lead to higher inflation, which might trigger an increase in interest rates by central banks. However we further believe that central banks are determined to keep rates lower for longer, even if inflation goes up. Against this positive background, we keep overweighting equities at the expense of bonds. Since March 2020, stockmarkets have already been performing impressively; but we believe that this is justified by fundamentals and that there is still room to benefit further.”
Luca Dal Mas
Senior fund analyst, Aviva Investors. Based in: London, UK
“News about the ongoing economic recovery has been good. The combination of lower case numbers, planned and actual re-openings, and successful rollouts of vaccination programmes is boosting optimism about a lasting revival, and eventual restoration of some semblance of normality. We have marginally reduced our exposure to emerging markets equities in our portfolio, in favour of developed markets, to be better aligned with our regional preferences.”
Kelly Prior
Investment Manager in the Multi-manager team, BMO Global Asset Management. Based in: London, UK
“In a month of mixed fortunes, Europe took the lead as a its vaccine program gained traction. US and Asian equities lagged as markets rotated away from technology stocks. The Magallanes Value Investors European Equity fund was the best performer of the selection, with the growth-skewed TT Emerging Markets Unconstrained the laggard. It’s all to play for as we enter the summer months with sentiment finely balanced. There is much hope that we see a surge in economic activity without an increase in a sustained inflationary impulse.”
Javier Estrada
Chief Investment Officer, Private Banking, CaixaBank. Based in: Madrid, Spain
“Our main asset class exposures remain unchanged. However, we have changed our global climate bonds for financials, and in alternatives we added a new long/short equity fund, lowering the volatility in this asset class. On the equity side, we favour Europe versus Asia and North America. We are also taking profit in the small-caps to increase exposure in value. Other changes include adding healthcare and consumer staples versus infrastructure and industrials.”
Silvia Tenconi
Multimanager Investments & Unit Linked, Eurizon Capital SGR. Based in: Milan, Italy
“In May, the portfolio’s performance was positive, with Invesco Pan European Equity and Acadian European Equity being the biggest contributors. We decided to switch out of Vontobel US Equity and into JPMorgan US Value, as we think the value rotation will resume as economic data start surprising to the upside in the summer. We keep our overall equity exposure unchanged, with the bulk of it in developed markets, have some spread exposure and almost no duration.”
Richard Troue
Fund Manager, Hargreaves Lansdown Fund Managers. Based in: Bristol, UK
“The performance of the world’s largest internet stocks has come off the boil this year. Cyclical and ‘value’ stocks are experiencing a resurgence. This rotation should provide a better chance to beat the market, but of course ample chances to make mistakes as well. It has been good to see some of the more value-focused funds, such as Man GLG Japan CoreAlpha and JOHCM UK Equity Income, deliver better returns recently and provide some balance to the more
US/growth-focused funds.”
Paul Hookway,
Senior Fund Analyst, Kleinwort Hambros. Based in: London, UK
“We have reduced the portfolios growth bias by removing the Jupiter European Growth Fund, which had struggled in recent months, and reduced the BlackRock Continental European Flexible position. The proceeds were used to add a new holding of JOHCM Continental European to the portfolio, which has a strong value bias within its portfolio. While the portfolio still has a modest growth bias, it is much reduced. It is likely that we will continue this process over the coming months, unless market dynamics change.”
Antti Saari
Chief Investment Strategist, Nordea investments. Based in: Copenhagen, Denmark
“Inflation has surprised investors to the upside and will likely remain elevated for the coming months. However, we think this, and the associated bottlenecks, are growing pains resulting from an exceptional economic rebound. For investors, the operative word is growth. For instance, revenue outlooks for sectors most heavily exposed to the ongoing semiconductor shortage have continued to improve through the year. Put together, we find the current environment still favourable for risk-taking, and hence keep the equity overweight.”
Marco Pabst
Chief Investment Officer London at Union Bancaire Privée (UBP). Based in: London, UK
“Equity markets did not make much progress in May, driven by a ‘buy the rumour, sell the fact’ approach. Fixed income markets were largely unimpressed with higher inflation, and have been moving sideways since March. Portfolio performance in May was solid, with all but two funds performing positively. US-focused funds performed best, while emerging markets lagged behind world equities. With inflationary risks subsiding, the TIPS ETF is being sold with the proceeds going into cash.”
