While government bond yields and, in particular, gilt, bund and treasury yields have all been rising in recent weeks (German 10 year yields doubled last week) the last few days have seen sudden, sharp moves that have seen investors lose significant amounts of capital. As one investor put it to Portfolio Adviser on Thursday, if…
According to the firm’s Global Investment Trends survey which polled 20,706 retail investors across 28 countries in March, the average expected rate of return expected over the next 12 months is 12%. However, they believe to achieve these returns by investing almost half of their new investments in low-risk assets. European investors expect a slightly lower…
According to the group’s ETP Landscape publication, emerging market equity products saw $2.9bn in inflows during the month, as momentum for EM funds, particularly those with exposure to China and India picked up. As reasons for the growth in momentum, Blackrock cited the cautious tone of the Federal Reserve in March and April, hope for…
Some 57% of delegates at Expert Investor Bilbao last week said they will step up their allocation to convertibles, while none are planning to decrease it. This strong appetite for convertible bonds stands in sharp contrast with other fixed income. Some 56% of fund buyers in the Basque country plan to decrease their exposure to…
£963m (€1.3bn) flowed out of UK equity funds on a net level over the month, compared to an average of £238m in inflows across the previous 12 months, while Europe ex-UK funds topped the best-sellers list with £663m in inflows compared to an average of £11m per month for the previous 12. “The last time…
Inflows into alternative Ucits funds broke an all-time record for the second consecutive month in March. According to Morningstar’s European fund flows data, investors poured in €8.7bn over the month. Total net inflows in the first three months of the year now total € 19.8bn. Multistrategy funds remain the most popular category, with €3.3bn in…
The spike in net inflows coincides with renewed appetite among fund selectors for the asset class.The share of fund buyers telling us they will increase allocation to high yield bonds in the next 12 months almost doubled from 12% in December to 23% in late March. There seem to be several reasons for the uptick in interest.…
Fund selectors in Madrid fit in perfectly with the Pan-European fashion: they love European equities and are selling US stocks. However, they are based in Spain and are facing Spanish clients. This means cannot really afford to reduce their overall bond weighting. Instead they substitute low-yielding government bonds for high yield and emerging market debt.
José Luis Borges, head of institutional portfolios at BPI Gestao de Activos, is now underweight government bonds, and tells EIE’s Tjibbe Hoekstra why he has been investing in equity long/short strategies as an alternative.
The ECBs QE announcement combined with accelerating economic growth in the eurozone has propelled European equity sentiment to a record high. At the same time, appetite for US equities among Europes fund buyers is at an all-time low.
EIE’s editor Dylan Emery invited four of the most senior fund distributors in Europe to discuss industry trends. The conversation revealed that absolute return does not only top fund selectors’ buy lists. It also dominates the agenda of asset management companies.
February 2015 was the month of the Great Rotation: it was not the long-awaited shift from bonds to equities though, but rather the move from US equities to European equities.
