Article written by Roger Clayton, Salt Funds Management – 13th October 2020

In New Zealand, the S&P/NZX50G index fell -1% over the quarter but remains +5.9% year to date. A key detractor was heavy weight A2 Milk (-24%) on daiguo sales disruptions, dragging down Synlait (-23%) whilst Sanford fell (-9%) on a weak update. The key outperformers in the quarter were Summerset (+40%) on stronger house prices and sales volumes, Skellerup (+37%) on a good result and Serko (+37%) on the re-opening trade and confidence in the Booking.com rollout. The Fund outperformed the benchmark in the September quarter, rising by +3.95% compared to the +2.59% turned in by the S&P/NZX50 Gross Index.

For more detail, the latest Salt NZ Dividend Appreciation Fund fact sheet can be found here.

NZ property stocks shook off any Covid-19 concerns and soared by +13.3% in the September quarter, far outpacing the wider NZ equity market, which rose by +2.6%. Performance in the quarter was rationally led by those entities with ultra-long lease terms, namely Vital Healthcare Property (VHP, +19.9%) and Investore Property (IPL, +21.2%). The Fund fractionally lagged the powerful surge in property stocks over the September quarter, rising by +12.75% compared to the +13.32% recorded by the S&P/NZX All Real Estate Gross Index.