Ethical Investing in Focus

In October each year we celebrate Ethical Investment Week. Ethical Investment Week is an opportunity for Australians to learn more about investing in line with their ethics. Morphic’s Head of Research James Tayler discussed five important questions you need to ask your ethical fund manager as a simple checklist.

As an active investor and a signatory of the Principles of Responsible Investment we are committed to engage with the companies in which we invest. In October we released the Morphic Stewardship Report, the first of what will be an annual update on our stewardship activities over the preceding twelve months.

Portfolio review

The Fund fell 0.2% in October, underperforming global markets which rose 0.6% in AUD terms. Global equities rallied +2.6% in USD terms fuelled by the third Fed easing in this cycle; progress on “Phase 1” of the US-China trade deal; and a US reporting season that began stronger than consensus was expecting. In October, Japan (+4.8%) and Emerging Markets (+4.1%) led regional performance while the earnings-stable US market (+2.1%) was the worst performing major region despite strong performance from the US Tech sector.