A SNAPSHOT OF THE KEY FACTORS DRIVING THE PERFORMANCE OF MARKETS AND YOUR FUNDS LAST MONTH
New Zealand Growth Fund
The New Zealand sharemarket was an island of calm in a storm during December, with flat performance and very low intra-month volatility compared to global stock markets that had very high levels of volatility and fell sharply. Our NZ portfolio returned 1.2% for the month.
Single stock dispersion, which measures the difference in performance between different companies in the market, was the lowest in years. Consumer staples were the top performer with portfolio heavyweight a2 Milk not only the best performer in the portfolio but also the best performer in the S&P/NZX 50 (+7.7%). A combination of a more benign Chinese regulatory outcome than the market expected, ongoing strong demand for the company’s infant milk , buoyant prices in both Australian and Chinese markets and the weak NZD all helped. Other top portfolio performers were Xero (+5.4%) and portfolio Freightways (+5.0%).
Ryman Healthcare was the worst performer in the portfolio (-6.4%) following the weaker rate of growth in new developments signalled at its half year result in late November.