The Fund rose 2.7% in August, trailing global markets for the month (3.6%). Global markets were up 0.6% in USD terms, with a significant fall in the Australian dollar providing the difference.

Despite continuing uncertainty surrounding trade wars, a strong US earnings season supported a rally in the US (+3.1%), and Tech stocks bounced globally. In contrast, cyclical regions (Emerging Markets and Asia Pac ex-Japan) and old world cyclical sectors (Energy and Materials) underperformed the global index as investors showed a preference for earnings stable assets. Europe (-3.1%) was the worst performing region in August, followed by Emerging Markets (-2.9%) which was impacted by currency weakness as Turkey (-29.0%), Brazil (-12.0%) and South Africa (- 10.1%), all contributed negatively.