Markets were primarily focused on developments around the Coronavirus “2019-nCov” outbreak in China. As the month progressed it became increasingly apparent that an outbreak had occurred. Unsurprisingly markets looked to previous viral outbreaks to draw inferences on the potential human and economic costs with the more recent viral outbreaks SARS (2003), H1N1 (2009) and MERS (2012) […]

03 Feb, 2020 – Greg Fleming – Head of Investment Strategy New Zealand

The past month saw a resumption of investor nervousness after the bullish end to 2019. Greg talks through the key geopolitical events which have unsettled investors during the past month, the impact of the CoronaVirus news on sentiment, and covers the performance […]

February 03, 2020 – Francis A. Scotland

Global Growth, The New Coronavirus and Reactions

Market developments in the new year have been dominated by the viral outbreak originating in Wuhan, China: panic selling in copper and industrial metals, weakness in commodities and emerging market currencies, developed country sovereign yields back near their August lows, the […]

The Summer 2020 issue of Taking Stock is now available to view online. Check out the latest news from AMP Capital, including ten themes for the next decade, responsible and ethical investing, investing in ‘exceptional’ companies, and ways to enhance performance in a low return world.

• Lead story: ten themes to set the scene

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Equity markets recorded solid gains last week with indices in the US reaching new all-time highs as the market volatility from last week slowly abated. Despite a Friday sell-off, the Dow, S&P 500 and NASDAQ all finished the week up more than 3%. In New Zealand, the NZX 50 eked out small gains too, thanks to a […]

Market overview

Global markets started January in a very positive fashion; then came Iran and then came the coronavirus. As coronavirus fears grew, markets pulled back and bonds rallied (yields fell to lows seen last September). The US market was flat for the month, while the UK market was down 3.4%, European markets down 2.6% and […]

Feb 11, 2020

Key points

• The conflict between the US and Iran caused some market volatility but proved to be short lived.
• Activity indicators were generally stronger in January. US manufacturing, which had been an area of weakness, posted a strong print in early February, well above expectations.
• The US earnings season was very strong. At the time of […]
  

In this month’s Fact Sheet, we cover the following:

• The Fund delivered 19.8% over the last 12 months beating its benchmark by 1.3%
• We discuss the key aspects of India’s budget for FY20-21 and what it means for the Indian Economy
• India recorded its largest ever calendar year investment in 2019 from PE and VC funds of US$48 […]
  

“The detection of a small number of   may indicate more widespread transmission in cases other countries; in short we may only be seeing the tip of the iceberg” – Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization on Coronavirus

MARKET COMMENTARY

Early in the month markets were basking in the after-glow of the partial US-China trade deal and […]

NZ’s S&P/NZX50 Gross Index rose by a solid +2.0%. The best performers were Pushpay (PPH +12%) on strong offshore buying, Fletcher Building (FBU +9%) on confidence the housing market is stabilising and Spark (SPK +8%). The Fund marginally lagged its benchmark in January, returning +1.76.  The largest tailwind was the Fund’s sizeable […]