Fund Manager News

The May 2019 fund commentary is available here.

Fund Commentary: May 2019 The month of May was a very eventful period for Indian markets, as May 23rd marked the national election results. Indian equity markets hit an all-time high with the incumbent government and Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, coming to power at the centre for the second time in a row, backed by…

May 2019 Market Commentary Times have changed. A year ago, consensus opinion was for rising rates. Yet interest rate markets are pricing in a significantly different forward path. Just a few months ago, the thought of rate cuts in the US or New Zealand seemed unlikely, yet here we are. The RBNZ cut the OCR…

Jack Lowenstein 18th June 2019 Last week, seven years ago, Jack Lowenstein my Co-CIO; Geoff Wood, my Head of Macro and Risk; and myself were shown into the spare space of what had been the yoga and break-out room of Optimal Funds Management on Macquarie Street. This little room was to be the new home…

Harbour Navigator 20th June 2019 Jorge Waayman There is a growing awareness that stock returns are influenced by Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) considerations.  As a long-term proponent of incorporating ESG factors into our assessment of companies, Harbour is delighted to have been involved in Armillary Private Capital’s annual review of returns of the NZ…

May 31st 2019 Here  are links to the 'new look' fund fact sheets for May 2019. Russell Investments Emerging Markets Fund Russell Investments Global Fixed Interest Fund Russell Investments Global Opportunities Fund Russell Investments Global Opportunities Fund $NZ hedged Russell Investments Global Shares Fund Russell Investments Hedged Global Shares Fund Russell Investments NZ Fixed Interest…

May 31st 2019 Market Commentary During May, many asset sectors that comprise the components of the diversified funds performed well – both at the market level and in terms of excess returns provided by our active management. However, in aggregate it was only the Conservative fund which produced a positive return (0.44%) whilst both the…

Brent Buchanan - Head of Direct Property - 18 June, 2019 Of all the various influences that have combined to shape recent capital flows into New Zealand, one continues to stand out: Overseas funds bearing large stockpiles of accumulated cash are coming to our shores and investing in property. SO WHY PROPERTY, AND WHY NEW ZEALAND? In…

Zoie Regan - Senior Investment Analyst - 18 June, 2019 Infratil has been a long-term holding in our New Zealand share portfolios since 2002 and in May we also added it to our Property & Infrastructure portfolios. Infratil is an investment company that owns energy, transport, data and social infrastructure businesses positioned to benefit from mega…

Harbour Navigator 21st June 2019 We are delighted to announce that Hamish Pepper will be joining Harbour Asset Management in mid-July as a Fixed Income Market Strategist. Hamish joins the Harbour investment team with specific responsibilities for macro-economic research, and fixed interest and currency strategy. He will be working alongside Mark Brown (Head of Fixed…

Harbour Navigator 24th June 2019 Yields on fixed interest securities, which have been falling sharply all year, took another surge lower last week. The 5-year swap rate, a good proxy for market rates in New Zealand reached 1.36%, down from 2.20% at Christmas 2018 and 2.65% a year ago. That’s a record low level for…

19th June 2019 Yet more great news - you can now add ANZ Term Deposits to your InvestNow portfolio! Alongside the 100+ managed funds, we now provide Kiwi investors with the ability to invest in term deposits from ANZ, BNZ and SBS Bank without the need to open accounts with each of the banks. You…