Giovanni Becchere
Head of Multi-Assets, ABN AMRO Investment Solutions. Based in: Paris, France
“Some of the negative factors and uncertainties that have hung over the market over the past months are slowly resolving or the outcomes are becoming more obvious. This resolution is occurring against a background of continued support from governments and central banks, low interest rates for longer, the prospects for a vaccine against Covid-19 early next year and the remarkable resilience seen in markets around the world. In this context we continue to prefer equities to fixed income. We also believe that growth-orientated strategies could benefit from the interest rates dynamic as well as from their higher quality in terms of levels and stability of profitability and leverage. So we increase exposure to Alger American Asset Growth while decreasing AAF US Aristotle Equities.”
Luca Dal Mas
Senior fund analyst, Aviva Investors. Based in: London, UK
“News flow continues to be dominated by the Covid-19 second wave, but we still expect positive growth in the fourth quarter. On the fiscal front, there have been bold initiatives in Europe, although the stimulus package in the US has stalled on account of politics. Global stock markets continue the previous relative trend, with the US outperforming European equities. However, markets sold off across the board on the escalation of Covid-19. We maintain a neutral stance toward equities in portfolios, balancing the improving economic data with the deteriorating news flow.”
Kelly Prior
Investment Manager in the Multi-manager team, BMO Global Asset Management. Based in: London, UK
“The variance in the spread of Covid was reflected in market returns in October, with Asia’s avoidance of a surge in cases contrasting starkly with that of a rampant second wave in the US and Europe. While the uncertainty of Brexit and the US election undoubtedly weighed on sentiment, it was the impact of reimposed lockdowns that caused falls in equities in Western markets, while those in the East gained ground. Reflecting this, the TT Asia ex Japan Equity Fund led the selection list, while the Memnon European Fund trailed. The final months of the year have the scope to shock, with a favourable Brexit outcome and a vaccine for Covid creating very different environments for political and economic shutdowns – all of which are possible outcomes of the next few months.”
Gayathri Devarakonda
Fund Research Analyst, Deutsche Bank Wealth Management. Based in: London, UK
“Equity markets were volatile in October as Covid infections continued to rise across Europe and US. The positive gains in the first couple of weeks were erased towards the end of the month as governments, mostly in Europe, started announcing new nationwide lockdowns. While S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 declined for second straight month, Asian markets held up well. On the fixed income side, European sovereign bonds performed well while US Treasuries fell –1.0% per cent. Silver gained 1.8 per cent while gold declined –0.4 per cent over the month. Our portfolio reflected the broad market movements and lost around 1% in October. We made no changes to the portfolio.”
Silvia Tenconi
Multimanager Investments & Unit Linked, Eurizon Capital SGR. Based in: Milan, Italy
“In October the performance of the portfolio was slightly negative again, with Fisher Emerging Markets Equity and JPMorgan Emerging Markets Opportunities being the biggest contributors. This time around, European equity funds were the biggest detractors to performance. The second wave of Covid in Europe and the incumbent US elections are hindering developed markets equities performance, as possible lockdowns in Europe and the deferment of the fiscal stimulus in the US are adding to uncertainty. We maintain a positive view on risky assets and increase our US equity allocation on weakness, putting some cash to work.”
Richard Troue
Fund Manager, Hargreaves Lansdown Fund Managers. Based in: Bristol, UK
“It’s a year since I inherited this portfolio from my predecessor. How the world has changed. As ever the challenge is to separate long-term change from short-term noise. I write this on the day of the US Presidential election. Much of the chatter around this is likely to be noise. But the changes to working patterns and consumer habits brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic could be permanent. When it comes to equity markets I want to invest with stockpickers who are alert to this and search for businesses that will thrive into the future. James Thomson, manager of Rathbone Global Opportunities, has a good record in this regard. A small position in his fund has been added to the portfolio by trimming a little from other funds investing in developed markets, including the UK, Europe, and Japan.”
Bernard Aybran
CIO Multi-management, Invesco. Based in: Paris, France
“October has been an interesting month for fund investors as the dispersion in performances has been meaningful again. As it’s been for a while, the performance differences between styles have been meaningful but a number of stock and company specific topic mattered too. The actively managed funds in portfolio performed in line with their targets and styles. The only changes performed over the month have been more on an asset allocation basis. Asian equity has been increased at the expense of their European counterparts and a similar move has been performed on the fixed income side by increase the Emerging debt.”
Paul Hookway,
Senior Fund Analyst, Kleinwort Hambros. Based in: London, UK
“Last month we felt confident to increase our equity exposure, in the short term this now seems a poor move, but we still remain convinced that equities over the long term remain the most attractive asset class invest in. Agreed, there are more things to worry about in the short term. However, we are long term investors. The first lockdown caused UK GDP to fall around 20 per cent, the second is likely to have less impact, we have seen estimates of around 5 per cent. Investing sometimes requires us to look through the noise allowing us to exploit other people’s fear. As a result we made no changes to the portfolio.”
Antti Saari
Chief Investment Strategist, Nordea investments. Based in: Copenhagen, Denmark
“Markets have grappled with risks stemming from the US election, the second wave of coronavirus infections and Brexit, among others, in the fall. However, although these are significant issues, all will eventually dissipate and some have, to an extent, already faded in importance. We continue to think that the strength of the ongoing earnings recovery is underappreciated, although there are bumps in the road, particularly in Europe, for the following quarters. Investors should look through any bumps in either macro or earnings data and rather treat potential market weakness as a buying opportunity. We continue to recommend an overweight in equity markets as we think the ongoing recovery, uneven as it may be, will eventually dominate short-term risks.”
