Giovanni Becchere
Head of Multi-Assets, ABN AMRO Investment Solutions. Based in: Paris, France
“Markets continue to be resilient and to exhibit positive momentum. Inflation’s fears have receded in the US, and inflation is expected to remain low in the Eurozone, allowing the European Central Bank to maintain its accommodative policies. Despite concerns linked to coronavirus variants and the unsatisfactory pace of vaccinations in developing countries, two factors that could have a negative impact on the ongoing recovery, equity markets are expected to continue to perform in coming quarters. As such, we keep our portfolio unchanged.”
Luca Dal Mas
Senior fund analyst, Aviva Investors. Based in: London, UK
“While US and European equities suffered some weakness, both have recovered and American indices reached a new all-time high. On the economic front, recent inflation data in many countries surprised significantly to the upside. The Chinese economy rebounded in the second quarter after a weak start of the year, but the pace of growth is still significantly lower than in 2020. And although the Delta variant is a concern globally, low hospitalisation and death rates should support investor confidence globally.”
Kelly Prior
Investment Manager in the Multi-manager team, BMO Global Asset Management. Based in: London, UK
“Regulation hit the Asian region hard this month, as China halted curriculum-based companies from making profits, raising capital or going public. The US Federal Reserve has also continued to hint that the tapering of asset purchases is on the horizon, with the US leading the main markets. We decided to shake up the fund this month with Spyglass US Growth replacing Artemis US Extended Alpha, Mirabaud UK Equity Alpha replacing Majedie UK Focus, and Berenberg European Small Cap replacing Memnon European.”
Javier Estrada
Chief Investment Officer, Private Banking, CaixaBank. Based in: Madrid, Spain
“We are keeping our positions steady, following recent corrections. Half of our portfolio is currently in equities, the rest divided between fixed income and alternatives. We are adding a covered bonds fund, looking for credit quality with no duration risk and we remove our position in emerging markets in local currency. Alternatives continue to be significant in our portfolio, performing well and with low volatility. On the equity side, we are biased in favor of Europe versus Asia and North America.”
Silvia Tenconi
Multimanager Investments & Unit Linked, Eurizon Capital SGR. Based in: Milan, Italy
“In July, the performance of the portfolio was positive, with Allianz Europe Equity Growth and Wellington US Research being the biggest contributors. Among the biggest detractors were Ninety-One Asia Pacific Equity and Invesco Asian Equity, which were heavily impacted by the sell-off in the Chinese market, taken aback by the new, stringent regulation imposed by the government on some sectors. Entering August, we deem it safer to take some profit on our equity holdings and reduce the overall risk of the portfolio, buying a cash fund.”
Richard Troue
Fund Manager, Hargreaves Lansdown Fund Managers. Based in: Bristol, UK
“Fear that the ‘delta variant’ could put the breaks on economic recovery seemed to outweigh concerns over higher inflation in July. There is some evidence the UK’s economic rebound is slowing, partly due to staff shortages. Beneath these numbers there are companies performing well and, barring any disasters, there should be scope for further recovery as the year moves on. This should benefit holdings such as Artemis Income and JOHCM UK Equity Income, and they remain a core part of the portfolio.”
Paul Hookway,
Senior Fund Analyst, Kleinwort Hambros. Based in: London, UK
“It is increasingly obvious to us that bonds are unlikely to offer diversification, should equity markets sell off. To fill this gap, we have added a structured note to the portfolio designed to offer significant protection here. This uses a spread of put options and long exposure on the S&P 500. It will add value if the index falls significantly, giving us some badly needed downside protection. It has a 5-year life, giving a high probability of a positive return, even if there is no market correction. This was funded by reducing the gold and Lyxor Tiedemann positions.”
Antti Saari
Chief Investment Strategist, Nordea investments. Based in: Copenhagen, Denmark
“While the Fed will almost certainly taper its asset purchases, this is less of an issue than it was in 2013. In our view, the outlook continues to favour equities over bonds, and hence we keep our overweight there. A tighter monetary policy in the US normally puts emerging market assets on a back foot, which leads us to underweight EM equities. Within bonds, we continue to underweight negative-yielding government bonds and overweight European investment grade corporate bonds which have a notably lower duration.”
Marco Pabst
Chief Investment Officer London at Union Bancaire Privée (UBP). Based in: London, UK
“Equity market performance in July was driven primarily by the US, while emerging markets underperformed substantially, with the MSCI China index losing 14%. This was caused by a crackdown on certain sectors of the Chinese economy, especially among internet and education sector stocks. China has been through several such cycles before and we believe current levels present an attractive opportunity for longer-term investors. In all, the portfolio underperformed slightly, but was still up for the month. ”
