Top Picks of the Month – October 2021
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.
Equity markets posted their first negative month worldwide since February with only a few exceptions such as Japan, India or Russia. Investors were increasingly concerned by the Chinese real estate market, inflationary pressures and slowing growth momentum. Potential systemic risk in China with Evergrande and the energy squeeze that sent oil, coal and natural gas prices through the roof were the key issues.
Equity markets experienced a sharp reversal from previous month dynamics. Value Stocks (energy and financials), and small and mid-cap outperformed the growth quality stocks that used to lead the table in recent months. Hence, alpha has been scarce across our equity funds with noteworthy exceptions being in the US: Artemis US Extended Alpha (-2.4% vs -4.7%) and Granahan US Focused Growth (-0.9% vs -3.8%).
In Fixed Income, Barings Global High Yield (+0.5%) and AXA WAVE Cat Bonds (+0.2%) posted nice positive monthly returns confirming their outperformance on a YTD basis.