Top Picks of the Month – April 2022
We show here a selection of funds that might be of interest to you. They were chosen either for their outstanding performance, which is likely to continue, or for their potential for attractive returns or diversification given current and expected market conditions.
Ukraine conflict, China’s zero Covid policy and central banks policy normalization weighted heavily on investors’ sentiment. Performances were negative across almost all asset classes and regions. Within equities, US (particularly the Nasdaq), technology and small caps posted the worst absolute returns. Within Fixed Income, the riskier sub asset classes such as EM and high yield were hit most logically in a risk-off mode.
In April, all the funds across all asset classes posted negative returns in USD. But M&G Global Listed Infrastructure displayed again the best alpha generation for equity funds (+4.4%) confirming its solid defensive features in a risk-off environment. Elsewhere, outperformers were scarcer but well spread regionally: Goldman Sachs Millennials Equity Portfolio (+1.8%), Goldman Sachs Global CORE Equity Portfolio (+1.5%), Artemis SmartGARP Global Emerging Markets (+1.6%).
Fixed income markets continue to be challenging but active management in that field outperformed again during the month. It is particularly true in the EM debt space, where funds such as Baring EM Local Debt (+0.7%) or Vontobel EM Debt (+0.8%) were able to add value in the downside despite disappointing absolute returns.