Analysis

by David Chaplin Even a blind monkey-based manager could outperform the average active fund by simply flinging darts at the stock index chart, according to US academic, Burton Malkiel, 88. His claim, first aired in his classic ‘A Random Walk Down Wall St’, has been used as anti-active ammunition ever since. Later studies actually concluded…

The New Zealand Superannuation Fund (NZS) is overhauling its 10-year old responsible investment (RI) strategy to stay on track with global best practice, after recording a 60bps gain due to its old policy. In its ‘Climate Change Report’ published last week, the NZS says the fund had launched a project dubbed ‘Resetting the Responsible Investment…

A sample of institutional asset owners and fund managers has confirmed their views on the increasing complexity around both asset allocation and the strategies they design. They also confirmed the increasing importance of technology but expressed annoyance at continuing room for improvement in some areas. According to the authors at the study’s promoter, global systems…

Robert Shiller, Nobel laureate in economics, wrote about stories and images being created around new economic events. COVID-19 has thrown up a sequence of images from the past, pushing governments and central banks into unknown territory. This is the current ‘Day After’ narrative. In its views on a post-crisis world, Amundi Asset Management, Europe-based global…

While investing following strong and integrated ESG principles does not readily spring to mind when considering China there is more action going on across the sustainability space there than many people think. The building blocks are already in place: a growing green credit market that is encouraging companies to invest in ESG-related projects, strategic government…

It’s not only big super funds, such as Australian Super, which have taken a stick to Rio Tinto over the destruction of a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal heritage site at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia, forcing the departure of the chief executive, head of iron ore and head of corporate affairs. ESG-orientated fund managers have also been…

Even before the fallout from COVID-19 hit home, hedge funds and other alternatives managers had been looking to diversify their offerings to cater to a shifting investment environment. This has had “strong implications” for their operating models as well as their traditional service providers, according to a report by the asset servicing arm of Northern…

Over the very long term, interest rates and share market returns have been positively correlated. It is only since the late 1990s that they have been negatively correlated for any length of time. A new research note by Michael Armitage, says investors should brace themselves for a return to the long-term normal and suggests consideration…

Capital Group has an interesting suggestion: why not turn the standard portfolio construction view for investors on its head? Why not reverse the traditional beta-heavy core and alpha-seeking satellites of the portfolios of most big super funds? The global manager believes that putting active strategies at the core provides more flexibility, and, ultimately, a better…

Rio Tinto, a global resources company which has both an Australian lineage and an Australian supply base, has started a war, perhaps unintentionally, with big super funds and a large proportion of the broader community following the company’s destruction of an ancient Aboriginal heritage site – the oldest known in Australia, dating back about 46,000…

A report by media research group the Nielsen Company following Australia-specific data collection shows there has been a significant spike in readership of business and finance news and commentary online, and also share-trading access to online investor tools, since the start of the lockdown in March. Readership of financial news and information has jumped 43…

Even though almost all asset services firms suffered declines in their assets under custody in Australia in the six months to June, J.P. Morgan managed to strengthen its position relative to the rest of the pack. It will increase this further soon when it implements the transfer of assets from new client CareSuper. The latest…