MSCI

Passive funds have built momentum on the win-win premise of low-cost market benchmarked products but a new study confirms the undoubted winners of the seemingly unstoppable trend: indexers. Global index providers saw an aggregate year-on-year revenue increase of almost a quarter in 2021 as demand for passive products, notably exchange-traded funds (ETFs), soared over the…

Value investors have staged their long-prophesied comeback during the highly volatile start to the year. But questions remain about whether this performance will be prolonged. March stands out as being one of the most difficult periods for investors in a generation. On the one hand, bond markets sent fixed income to its worst return in…

The emissions intensity of the ASX has some investors with a home country bias looking for an exclusionary approach. But decarbonising Aussie equities isn’t as simple as ditching them. Compared to other indices, the ASX is dirty. A large number of listed companies in pollutive industries like resources and energy means its emissions intensity is…

Investors and their fund managers have dumped Russian holdings in recent weeks amid worsening horror at the invasion of Ukraine. But active managers could lessen the blow for investors through new opportunities on the other side of a Russian trade. For Ninety One’s emerging markets team, Russia is an “ugly sideshow” to the main investment…

The increasingly expansionary MSCI Group is to buy Real Capital Analytics (RCA), a property research firm. The Australian operation is earmarked for strong growth. MSCI announced last week (August 3) that it would pay US$950 million (A$1.3 billion) for RCA, which was founded in the US a little over 20 years ago, in 2000, by…

GMO has released its latest borderline-apocalyptic seven-year forecast for stocks and bonds as it warns clients to “concentrate assets where the bubble ain’t”. GMO’s extraordinarily bearish forecasts predict a negative annual real return over seven years across the majority of both stocks and bonds, with only emerging markets value stocks getting a positive, if slim,…

Joseph Lai, the top-performing Asia equities manager who resigned from Platinum Asset Management on December 29 last year, is set to join Fidante’s new boutique, Ox Capital. He will reportedly link up with another long-term emerging markets specialist, Doug Huey. The two had worked together at Platinum, where Huey was an investment analyst, prior to…

The discussion about the best way to build and manage an appropriate exposure to China is becoming more urgent. Mercer has helped investors with some new research. In a paper entitled: ‘Positioning Your Portfolio for the Future of Emerging Markets – the case for a dedicated China equity allocation’ the global advisory and funds management…

There is growing concern about the relevance of broad market indices, especially due to their poor reflection of China’s growth. The main concern should probably be managers who hug them. Whether or not it’s the index producers to blame, or managers who are not as active as they claim, an interesting angle on what is…

In a highly unusual move, the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has cracked down on fund managers advertising post-COVID boom-time annual returns. The regulator has warned managers that advertising any “phenomenal” returns garnered over the 12 months to March 31 could “mislead investors”. Global share markets bounced back spectacularly from the brief COVID-induced shock early last…