Giovanni Becchere
Head of Multi-Assets, ABN AMRO Investment Solutions. Based in: Paris, France
“After a tough 2020, 2021 is expected to be a time of recovery. The Democrats taking the majority in the US Senate provides further support for a positive growth outlook in the US. The high amounts of forced and precautionary savings will progressively be spent or invested. With interest rates barely able to go down any further, investors will have no incentive in investing in bonds and will increasingly have to look at risky assets. In this context we keep our preference for equities which will benefit from the economic recovery and the early cycle dynamics.”
Luca Dal Mas
Senior fund analyst, Aviva Investors. Based in: London, UK
“Global equities delivered an above-average return by historical standards. Global fixed income also performed very well. Despite worrying developments over transmission of the virus, equities continued to hold their ground in December. All major central banks confirmed that their present position would continue, while recent economic data shows that the manufacturing and service sectors are doing much better than during the first wave. In portfolios, we have trimmed equity risk and rebalanced back to our strategic allocation.”
Kelly Prior
Investment Manager in the Multi-manager team, BMO Global Asset Management. Based in: London, UK
“Santa delivered a Brexit resolution, a vaccine and a step closer to fiscal stimulus in the US. The rally that followed was defined by a rotation into the beneficiaries of a recovering economic landscape. Emerging and Asian markets led the rally as the dollar weakened, with the TT Emerging Markets Unconstrained fund leading the portfolio table. On the flip side the M&G (LUX) Global Macro Bond was the loser, as government bonds gave back ground. Such a strong end to a year has significant risk of short-term volatility but the light of the end of the tunnel is getting brighter.”
Gayathri Devarakonda
Fund Research Analyst, Deutsche Bank Wealth Management. Based in: London, UK
“December was another positive month for equities as global markets welcomed new fiscal relief bill and more vaccine approvals. Energy, financials and tech stocks posted strong returns. Similar to equities, the riskier high yield segments performed strongly on the fixed income side. December was a good month for commodities with gold, silver and oil registering strong gains. At the portfolio level, all our underlying holdings reported positive returns in December. We made no changes to the portfolio.”
Silvia Tenconi
Multimanager Investments & Unit Linked, Eurizon Capital SGR. Based in: Milan, Italy
“In December, the performance of the portfolio was positive, with Vanguard US Opportunities, Allianz Europe Growth and Fisher Emerging Markets being the biggest contributors. An end to this pandemic seems to be in sight. The ECB has increased its PEPP program and pledged to sustain the economy until needed, the US Congress has approved a big fiscal stimulus and the Brexit saga has come to an end. Things are improving on the real side of the economy and we keep our allocation to equities and high yield bonds unchanged.”
Richard Troue
Fund Manager, Hargreaves Lansdown Fund Managers. Based in: Bristol, UK
“I’m pleased with how the portfolio performed in 2020. However, the main area of disappointment was UK equity income which, for reasons that are now obvious, provided neither shelter nor positive returns. With a Brexit deal over the line and Covid vaccines being rolled out, I’m hopeful for improvement in the UK market in 2021. I’m happy to retain a bias to the UK, based on reasonable valuations and dividend growth potential. I still expect overseas investments to prove valuable in the years ahead, alongside more defensive investments that can offer shelter when it’s needed.”
Bernard Aybran
CIO Multi-management, Invesco. Based in: Paris, France
“A few arbitrages have been performed over December in the equity portfolio: the Asian equity exposure has been raised as the region brings a combination of growth opportunities and decent valautions. On the US equity investments, profits have been taken on the long-held, outperforming Nasdaq holding and re-invested on an ESG-weighted ETF. As the new administration is on the verge of implementing more green-oriented regulations, some more upside can be found in this area. Fixed income investments are keeping a low duration bias.”
Paul Hookway,
Senior Fund Analyst, Kleinwort Hambros. Based in: London, UK
“Against a backdrop of rising Covid infections, we decided not to make any changes to the portfolio. The short-term news flow was increasingly negative as infections, hospitalisations and deaths steadily increased across most developed economies. We decided that markets could retreat and therefore did not increase our equity allocation, though we expect to do this early in the new year when the impact of the vaccination programme can be assed. The next move is likely to be tilting the portfolio more towards value, reducing its current growth bias.”
Antti Saari
Chief Investment Strategist, Nordea investments. Based in: Copenhagen, Denmark
“Looking at 2020 as an investment year, it has been nothing less than extraordinary. Despite some near-term uncertainty, we think earnings estimates for the following years are some 5–10 per cent too low, and therefore valuations look more extended than they really are. Moreover, we continue to think that compressing risk premia will offset a significant part of the stock-market impact from rising yields. We expect the continued recovery in 2021 to lift equities relative to bonds and we remain overweight in equities.”
