Global equity markets had a volatile start to 2020, as fears of the coronavirus outbreak caused an uptick in market volatility. January got off to a good start with indices in the US, Australia and New Zealand making new all-time highs, but concerns around the virus saw most benchmarks give back some gains.

With the pickup in volatility and lingering concerns with regards to the coronavirus, […]

Michael Higgins – Portfolio Manager – December 10, 2019

If you’re looking for a home loan in Australia today, chances are, you’re going to use a mortgage broker. In the latest home loan channel survey, 6 out of 10 residential mortgages are now originated using a broker (Figure 1). Broker share in the early 1990s was estimated to be in the teens at best! The explosion has been a […]

Katlyn Parker – Investment Analyst – December 17, 2019

With interest rates at record low levels there is an argument that the benefits of cutting rates further become less. Whilst the Reserve Bank of NZ (RBNZ) still thinks this is an efficient lever to generate demand, monetary policy has its limitations and needs support to stimulate the economy and meet their inflation and employment targets.

Central banks globally, most notably […]

At the start of 2019 many investors were predicting a difficult year. Portfolio Manager Mark Riggall discusses why this didn’t happen and how Milford used a flexible approach to deliver value over the year.

Looking out to 2020, Senior Analyst Frances Sweetman doesn’t expect the sort of performance from the New Zealand share market that we’ve seen this year. Looking at the big picture how are we positioning our funds for the year ahead?

It was Groundhog Day (week) for US and New Zealand equity markets with both reaching new all-time highs last week, continuing their impressive start to the year. In the US, the Dow posted its fifth weekly gain over the last six, while the Nasdaq has recorded its sixth consecutive weekly gain.

In New Zealand, the NZX50 rose more than 2% last week to an all-time high around 11,800.

What’s happening in […]

Market Commentary

As 2019 drew to a close, a common discussion around market participants was the continuing issue of low interest rates, and in particular what this means for investors and markets.  Clearly, low interest rates mean reduced returns on cash assets, in addition it also resulted in relatively low coupons for bond investors, and therefore by extension lower yields (in the form of dividends and […]

Key highlights from the quarter were:

• Global share markets made impressive gains returning 7.5% in hedged NZD terms.
• NZ share market was stronger for the period and hitting further record highs.
• Listed infrastructure stocks got caught up in the broader rally in global share markets we saw over the period.

Global shares

Global share markets made impressive gains in the December quarter, with MSCI ACWI Index – Net returning […]