Global High Conviction
World markets were again volatile in Q3. We anticipate this continuing for a while. We remain fully invested with a value and quality bias.
The strategy returned over 4.7% in AUD$ terms in September.
Japan outperformed the USA in the quarter which is the first time in many years this has happened. We remain very constructive on the Japanese equity market.
Global Infrastructure
Delft Partners Global Infrastructure strategy is an income producing portfolio of listed infrastructure assets which typically have more regular and stable revenue streams. The strategy aims to generate total returns that are more defensive than broader listed equities with low correlation to mainstream assets, providing stable income, capital growth and liquidity with lower return volatility compared to typical listed equity strategies.
Global Infrastructure outperformed broader equities in Q3 – portfolio’s benchmark rose 7.15% versus MSCI World Index of 4.65% in AUD (much of this was weaker AUD, 4.12%) – as investors moved more to defensives given the growing concerns over the USA-China trade war, together with generally weaker economic data across the globe.
Asia Small Companies
The index was able to achieve a positive return of 3.2% in the quarter despite losses recorded in Hong Kong, Singapore, China and South Korea. The positive return was generated by strength in Japan and Taiwan plus the impact of a weak Australian dollar. Our fund delivered a strong performance of 4.5% for the quarter for a positive active return of 1.2% above the benchmark.