Giovanni Becchere
Head of Multi-Assets, ABN AMRO Investment Solutions. Based in: Paris, France
“We believe growth deceleration is temporary and a slight re-acceleration is expected in the first half of 2020. Stabilisation of the global economy is being increasingly signalled and the services sector has been resilient around the world, supported by the consumers. This environment will be very positive for stocks, as the asset class continues to be the main source for expected returns. Within equities, valuations look more attractive in emerging markets. In this context we increase exposure to emerging equities at the expenses of US high yield as we consider that, while investment grade can be considered as a cash substitute in a growth environment, the high yield risk/return profile is not yet attractive.”
Luca Dal Mas
Senior fund analyst, Aviva Investors. Based in: London, UK
“December concluded a very strong year for most asset classes, in a complete reversal from what investors experienced in 2018. Equity and credit market moved higher, with UK assets strongly supported by the decisive Conservative win at the general election while slightly more favourable tones on the never-ending trade deal saga helped the wider market. From an economic perspective we did not have major economic surprises from recent data, which continue to support a weak but recovering world growth outlook for 2020. In our portfolios we maintained the overall risk balance but decided to switch some of the high yield exposure towards local currency emerging market debt.”
Kelly Prior
Investment Manager in the Multi-manager team, BMO Global Asset Management. Based in: London, UK
“Markets finished the year with a strong month in December, with all but Japan gaining ground. The weakness in the dollar buoyed the fortunes of emerging and Asian markets in particular, while a conclusive Conservative victory in the UK general election and firming up of the US China trade deal all helped sentiment remain positive elsewhere. The TT Emerging Markets Unconstrained fund was the star of the performance table in the month, while the M&G (Lux) Global Macro Bond trailed. The Artemis (Lux) US Extended Alpha fund is being replaced by the William Blair SICAV US Small-Mid Cap Growth fund. After a stunning year in 2019 and sentiment seemingly positive, we look forward to seeing how markets progress in the new year.”
Ian Crispo
Head of fund selection, Deutsche Bank Wealth Management. Based in: London, UK
“The portfolio ended the year on a good note, taking advantage of the benign markets driven by the EM exposures on both debt and equity side. The government bonds and trend following allocations detracted somewhat wrong footed by the risk on environment. Elsewhere in the portfolio, strategies performed well and we did not make changes to our asset allocation during the month.”
Silvia Tenconi
Multimanager Investments & Unit Linked, Eurizon Capital SGR. Based in: Milan, Italy
“In December, the performance of the portfolio was positive. Top contributors were our emerging markets equity funds, Fisher and JPMorgan. European and global equity funds also yielded positive results, while US and Japanese equity funds closed the month flat. Eurizon Fund Absolute High Yield gave a positive contribution in the month as well. Our US dollar exposure detracted somewhat, as the greenback lost nearly 2 per cent against the euro. Our view on risky assets is still positive, so we keep our allocation unchanged, favouring equities, high yield and cash.”
Richard Troue
Fund Manager, Hargreaves Lansdown Fund Managers. Based in: Bristol, UK
“The UK stockmarket ended 2019 on a high note, and funds with exposure to domestically-oriented companies and smaller businesses delivered handsome returns. But the UK remains unloved and out of favour and I expect being overweight the UK to pay off in the long run. As ever there are plenty of geopolitical risks out there that could see markets wobble in 2020 – the US election, trade wars, tension in the Persian Gulf and, of course, Brexit. I see holdings in total return funds as a good defence against these risks and a source of cash should markets experience a setback.”
Bernard Aybran
CIO Multi-management, Invesco. Based in: Paris, France
“The balanced portfolio retains a small tilt in favour of the equity exposure. The only change that has been performed over December was reducing an actively managed fund in order to increase a long-held index tracking instrument. This has been done on a dual investment rationale. First, Japanese equities are trimmed in favour of the US. But adding to a mega cap index helps the portfolio benefit from the momentum effect that can be quite strong in the aftermath of a buoyant 2019. While momentum is prone to sharp reversal, it is currently continuing unabated.”
Paul Hookway,
Senior Fund Analyst, Kleinwort Hambros. Based in: London, UK
“After three years the Brexit stalemate ended. Whether this proves good or bad for the UK only time will tell; at last we can move forward. In the short term this has been taken well by the markets, with UK equities performing well post the election result. Our strategy is to not to make short-term investment decisions, instead taking the long-term view. Having raised our equity exposure in November we were well placed to take advantage of the improving market sentiment and decided we did not need to make any changes to the portfolio at this stage.”
Antti Saari
Chief Investment Strategist, Nordea investments. Based in: Copenhagen, Denmark
“Last year saw great returns from all risky asset classes. The question going into 2020 is if this will continue. Odds are that the stellar returns from equities will not be repeated, and negative-yielding government bonds will not return 8 per cent this year. However, we do think the equity rally has more room to run. Recession risks are on the decline and chances of a hawkish monetary policy error all but gone. We may well witness some profit-taking after the recent rally, but we think this will represent a buying opportunity and hence keep the equity overweight.”
