The modern family challenge
The percentage of families with both parents working has jumped 18 percentage points to 58 per cent since the 1980s while more than a quarter of women are now their family’s main breadwinner, according to the latest AMP.NATSEM report. The report, which analyses data from a variety of sources spanning 2001 to 2011, found more
October 22, 2013
Australian equities – large-cap
Sector overview: Despite ongoing concerns over the stability of the global economy, the Australian equities market has remained resilient, performing strongly over the past 12 months. The search for alternative ways in which to generate income has had some interesting consequences. In the Australian equity market, this has resulted in investors seeking to purchase higher-quality,
October 20, 2013
Australian equities – small-cap
The Australian small-cap sector remains a high alpha segment of the market. Of the funds covered by Zenith, the median outperformance of the benchmark has been more than 10 per cent over the previous 12 months. This has been on the back of similar outperformance figures for the 12 months prior. The sustained strong performance
October 20, 2013
Australian equities – alternative strategies
(Includes Australian market-neutral, long/short and income overlay (options) strategies). Historically, Australian market-neutral funds have demonstrated strong risk-adjusted returns. In Zenith’s view, the outperformance potential from market-neutral investing is partly because short selling in Australian equities is underutilised relative to other regions where hedge fund activity is a larger part of the market. In Australia, short
October 20, 2013
International equities – global
Global equity markets have continued to perform strongly over the past 12 months, despite persistent economic concerns. The ongoing liquidity forced into the global economy by major central banks has allayed short-term investor concerns. Whether the actions taken by the governments of the US, Japan and European Union provide a longer-term solution is still to
October 20, 2013
International equities – alternative strategies
(Including global long/short, regional long/short and income overlay (options) strategies) Global and regional long/short funds have the ability to protect portfolios in falling markets through market timing (increase short or cash positions), but have also been able to keep pace with, and indeed in some cases outperform, in strong up markets. A key reason for
October 20, 2013
International equities – emerging markets and regional
Despite the higher levels of economic growth in emerging countries, emerging equity markets have significantly lagged their developed peers. Considered a high-risk asset class, emerging markets have been hit hard by the flight to safety that has occurred due to global uncertainty over recent periods. Given the significant role China plays in both emerging and
October 20, 2013
Diversified funds
Throughout calendar year 2013, Zenith has observed a greater disparity in investment outcomes amongst managers operating within the diversified market segment. Zenith attributes this to the varying degree of evolution in active asset allocation and implementation practices, as sector participants have sought to improve portfolio durability amidst an increasingly complex and dynamic investment landscape. Notwithstanding
October 20, 2013
Alternative strategies
This category includes commodity trading advisors (CTAs), global macro, multi-strategy hedge funds, fund-of-hedge-fund products, agribusiness, commodities, private equity and other strategies. That is, this is a broad strategy class. CTAs refer to a style that is not driven by fundamental factors but rather strategies predominantly seeking out price momentum. During times of market stress there
October 20, 2013
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs)
2013 represents the inaugural year for inclusion of ETFs in the Professional Planner/Zenith Fund Awards. The increasing popularity of ETFs as a way to access a wide range of asset classes in a format that is cost-effective, direct and easy-to-manage for both planners and direct investors alike has seen the market grow very strongly over
October 20, 2013
Australian fixed interest
Using benchmark returns as a reference point, it is clearly evident that absolute returns for the Australian fixed interest market have broadly been low over the past year. This is in contrast to the past couple of years, which witnessed relatively strong gains as rates, credit spreads and overall market volatility generally compressed. Despite the
October 20, 2013
Global and diversified fixed interest
Similar to the Australian fixed interest market, absolute returns from the global fixed interest market have been low over the past year. Global fixed interest markets exhibited extreme volatility in response to actual and potential policy decisions of central banks around the globe as they responded to the different growth dynamics of their underlying economies.
October 20, 2013
