NEWS
Optimal Australia Absolute Trust
15 Nov 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
Optimal Australia Absolute Trust returned 0.32% for October 2013 bringing its five year performance to 10.84% p.a. (11.08% pa ASX 200 Acc Index) with a volatility of only 3.66% (13.57% Index).
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15 Nov 2013 - Optimal Australia Absolute Trust
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund's bias is likely to be net long under normal market conditions, with the core strategy being to construct a portfolio of listed equity securities priced at levels that do not adequately reflect their underlying value. The Fund will seek to boost returns and limit potential market downside by selective short selling of individual stocks which are priced at levels that are viewed as materially above their underlying value. The Fund will also use certain trading strategies both within its core portfolio (through rebalancing stock weights and overall market exposure in response to price movements) and in certain other situations (typically of a shorter-duration and/or opportunistic nature) with the objective of further increasing returns. |
| Manager Comments | The Manager comments 'In our view, a lot of the easy money in equities has been made. Those investors who backed central banks to either print money forever, or to eventually create decent economic growth, have done very well, and continued to do well in October. From here, however, it gets harder. Financial repression has driven equity valuations to levels that require a sharp acceleration in growth for stock prices to hold, and there are still many questions over the degree and sustainability of that acceleration. We believe that we are reaching a point at which the market has to make up its mind as to whether or not QE policies may finally work. While resources stocks have finally stopped falling, the compound under-performance of this group over three years certainly suggests that investors remain skeptical on growth.' |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Pengana Australian Equities Fund
14 Nov 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
Pengana Australian Equities Fund returned 2.29% during October with a cash weighting of 22% at month-end.
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14 Nov 2013 - Pengana Australian Equities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | The top five holdings by value were: DUET Group, ANZ Bank, Telstra, Resmed and NAB. The Fund increased its existing holdings in Resmed (post the sharp reaction to its lower than expected turnover growth by the US market), McMillan Shakespeare, Summerset, Mermaid Marine and David Jones. In addition the Fund acquired a new holding in new listing Australian Industrial REIT (a well-managed high quality industrial property group on an attractive yield). The Fund's exposure to non Australian dollar earnings streams (inclusive of companies with global earnings profiles such as Resmed and Fox Group, NZ based companies and US dollar exposure) stood at 22%. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Insync Global Titans Fund
13 Nov 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
Insync Global Titans Fund returned 1.47% over October and 20.7% over the previous twelve months with a very low volatility of 6.12%.
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13 Nov 2013 - Insync Global Titans Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | Signs of modest economic recovery continue and the US earnings season has been broadly supportive. Although revenue growth is still hard to come by earnings have more often than not surprised on the upside, particularly in the more cyclical sectors such as Consumer Discretionary. Forward guidance by companies is still generally conservative and share prices have risen faster than earnings, making markets look fully priced. The Fund's unit price increased by 1.47% in October, with the largest positive contributions coming from our holdings in CR Bard, Reckitt Benckiser, Wyndham Hotels, British Sky Broadcasting and Sanofi. The main detractors for the month included Coach and Dr Pepper Snapple. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund
12 Nov 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund recorded a sound performance of 2.17% during October with a net exposure of 71%.
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12 Nov 2013 - Bennelong Kardinia Absolute Return Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The Fund consists of a concentrated long/short portfolio typically comprising 30 to 40 ASX300 listed stocks, generally with a long bias aligned to the overall market direction. There is a slight bias to large cap stocks in the long side of the portfolio, although in a rising market the portfolio will tend to hold smaller caps, including resource stocks, more frequently. On the short side, the portfolio is particularly concentrated, with stock selection limited by both liquidity and the difficulty of borrowing stock in smaller cap companies. Short positions are only taken when there is a high conviction view on the specific stock. The Fund uses derivatives in a limited way, mainly selling short dated covered call options to generate additional income. These typically have less than 30 days to expiry, and are usually 5% to 10% out of the money. ASX SPI futures and index put options can be used to hedge the portfolio's overall net position. |
| Manager Comments | The Fund's longer term record demonstrates the low risk investment approach with the five year performance record showing an annualised standard deviation of 7.15%, 52% of the ASX 200 Accum Index, and a return of 12.84% pa (11.08% Index). The domestic market was focussed on the AGM season with trading updates and commentary generally cautious. Banks performed strongly with ANZ and NAB reporting solid results and increased dividends. |
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Allard Investment Fund
11 Nov 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
Allard Investment Fund recorded 0.3% for October. Since inception (July 2003) the Fund has returned 8.74% with very low volatility of 8.00% pa and a maximum draw-down of 18.29%.
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11 Nov 2013 - Allard Investment Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | At month-end the Fund was 70.7% invested in equities with the remaining 29.3% in cash and fixed income. In terms of portfolio concentration the Top 5 holdings were 41.2% and the next 5 at 16.9% with remainder totaling 12.6%. Industry break-down in terms the largest exposures are Financial Services 15.4%, Conglomerates 12.3% and Telco's at 8.6%. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
8 Nov 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund returned 1.88% during October bringing its 12 month return to 22.02% and the since inception return (Jan 2003) to 21.20% p.a. as compared to the ASX 200 Accumulation Index return of 10.30% p.a. over the...
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8 Nov 2013 - Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | The long portfolio solidly out-performed the performance detraction from the short book. Intra-month performance was very strong but drifted toward the latter part of the month as markets rallied. Stock specific news centered around the Annual General Meeting updates of company earnings outlook guidance and a few quarterly reports, both of which marginally contributed to portfolio performance. Global equity markets continue to experience strong momentum. The prevalence of low interest rates is buoying sentiment with a strong pipeline of IPO's as well as capital management initiatives. This is also beginning to flow through to 'Main Street' with house prices both in Australia and in the U.S. rising. Domestically there has been a strong focus on costs as top line growth has been elusive. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Morphic Global Opportunities Fund
7 Nov 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
Morphic's Global Opportunities Fund gains 3.14% in October as the manager successfully navigated the US budget face-off, taking 12 month performance to 34.69%.
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7 Nov 2013 - Morphic Global Opportunities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Manager Comments | Morphic's performance report for the month noted that once again the market mood was dictated by activities in the US. This month the concern was whether the House of Representatives would approve an increase in the total amount of debt the government could issue, and pass resolutions allowing a new budget for the year. Amid intense brinkmanship, global equity markets sold off, followed by a sharp rally when President Obama stared down the House, and the spectre of a US default on its debt faded. The Fund started the month with hedges in place for a worst case outcome on the US budget face-off. As it became clear the market was mispricing the prospect of a last minute deal, the Manager bought call options on US markets, which soared when the President prevailed. The Fund ended the period still underweight the US and overweight Japan, Europe and Emerging Market - and fully invested, but not without some caution after the strong returns of global markets year to date and with some signs of frothiness in valuations now appearing. The most likely trigger for a sell-off would seem to be a resurgence of anxiety about US monetary policy. To mitigate this risk the Manager has established a number of short term positions over US fixed income futures. As any tightening in US monetary policy will probably see the US dollar rise, the Manager has hedged part of the Fund's European exposure back in US dollars. The Fund's largest equity exposure by sector is to Financials, and geographically to North America, followed by Western Europe and Asia. At month end there was no active commodity exposure, and no active credit positions. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Monash Absolute Investment Fund
6 Nov 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
Monash Absolute Investment Fund has returned 18.07% year-to-date and 37.30% for the last 12 months. October performance was 3.00%.
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6 Nov 2013 - Monash Absolute Investment Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The fund seeks to identify opportunities in the share market to make positive returns (long and short) irrespective of market conditions. It is style agnostic, as compelling investment opportunities exist across all investment styles from time to time. The Fund places a high priority on capital preservation, and has an absolute return focus in accepting market risk. |
| Manager Comments | The Manager notes that October was another interesting month. There was no slackening in the number of placements and IPOs, which are taking advantage of improving investor confidence. Evidence of a recovering risk appetite is also shown by global fund flow data. After 5 years of strong flows into cash and bond funds and outflows from equity funds the trend has now reversed. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Fund Review: BlackRock Multi Opportunity Fund
5 Nov 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
AFM's updated Fund Review for BlackRock Multi Opportunity Fund. The current strategy has returned 11.65% pa since inception (July 2004) and only three negative months since May 2010.
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5 Nov 2013 - Fund Review: BlackRock Multi Opportunity Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
BLACKROCK MULTI OPPORTUNITY FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the BlackRock Multi Opportunity Fund.
We would like to highlight the following aspects of the Fund:
- The Fund offers broad diversification across asset classes including equities, fixed income, currencies and commodities with an attractive risk profile, having provided double digit returns in 2009 through 2012 with low volatility of 2.10% over the last 48 months.
- The current strategy has seen the Fund record only three negative months since May 2010, leading to annualised returns over the past 48 months (to September 2013) of 11.68% and an annualised volatility of 2.10% pa. The four year Sharpe Ratio is 3.60, indicating an excellent reward-to-risk ratio.
- BlackRock's Active Scientific involves extensive research into every aspect of the investment process starting with the identification of fundamental investment insights. These are thoroughly tested to ensure that the outcome consistently adds to performance: Quantitative analysis is also applied to balance both performance and risk ensuring the position is only taken when the potential for reward is adequate. Only insights meeting this multi level process are implemented into portfolios.
Research and Database Manager
Australian Fund Monitors
Fund Review: Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund
4 Nov 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
AFM's updated Fund Review for the Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund for August 2013. The Fund is characterised by steady returns and very low risk. The since inception (March 2005) return is 8.22% pa and the annualised standard deviation 2.78%.
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4 Nov 2013 - Fund Review: Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund (pdf format)
AURORA FORTITUDE ABSOLUTE RETURN FUND
We would like to highlight the following aspects of the Fund;
The Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund (AFARF) has a 8 year track record investing in ASX listed equities. A Market Neutral overlay is used across a multi strategy approach which allows for flexible asset allocation to maximise returns and minimise risk under a variety of market conditions and cycles.
Strong use of low risk "long" derivatives and option overlays has provided positive returns with low volatility during periods of market dislocation. Over 87% of monthly performances have been positive, with no losing months in 2008 and a largest drawdown of -2.09%.
ASX listed Aurora Funds Limited was established on the merger of three existing fund management businesses, managing approx. $480m on behalf of more than 2,500 retail and wholesale investors.CIO John Corr has over 20 years financial market experience with a strong focus on risk.
Research and Database Manager
Australian Fund Monitors
Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund (pdf format)
