InvestNow News – 16th Jan 20 – Pie Funds – CIO Report – Global equities very well-Fed
10th Jan 2020
Global markets have been extremely strong since October, coinciding with the US Federal Reserve once more expanding its balance sheet (or ‘printing money’). While liquidity is being pumped into the system equities perform well, but there are near record-low returns for other asset classes such as property and bonds.
Australasian fund summaries
The Growth and Emerging Funds were up slightly in December (0.2% and 0.6%, respectively) while their markets were flat or down. The Dividend and Growth 2 Funds had tough months, down -1.2% and -5.8%, respectively.
Key contributors for the Growth Fund were Atrum Coal (ATU.ASX), West African Resources (WAF.ASX) and Austin Engineering (ANG.ASX). The main detractors were Australis Oil and Gas (ATS.ASX) and EML Payments (EML.ASX).
For the Emerging Fund, key contributors were Citadel Group (CGL.ASX) which continued its strong run post founder Mark McConnell returning as CEO, and Kip McGrath (KME.ASX) with Atomos Ltd (AMS.ASX) the main detractor.
Key contributors to the Dividend Fund’s loss were AMA Group (AMA.ASX), Smartgroup Corp Ltd (SIQ.ASX), which posted another earnings downgrade (its third) on changes to terms of insurance products sold, and Eclipx Group Ltd (ECX.ASX). Countering – but moderate – positive contributions came from Napier Port Holdings (NPH.NZX) and Service Stream (SSM.ASX).