Julien Moutier

“The markets continued to suffer losses in February with global equity markets falling to levels not seen for 10 years. This reflects heightened concerns over the corporate profit outlook for 2009 and whether the stimulus packages will be successful. The MSCI AC World fell 10 per cent in US dollar terms and the MSCI Emerging index dropped 5.7 per cent. Volatility remains high, but has stabilised under 50 per cent. Returns on our portfolio suffered from the correction on global markets while it benefited from our exposure to euro government fixed income through the Petercam’s core vehicle. We were penalised by widening spreads on US corporate credit.”