NEWS
Fund Review: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
20 Nov 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund is a research driven, market and sector neutral, "pairs" trading strategy investing primarily in large cap stocks from the ASX/S&P100 Index, with a ten year track record and annualised net returns of over 20%.
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20 Nov 2013 - Fund Review: Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund (pdf format)
BENNELONG LONG SHORT EQUITY FUND
Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund.
- The Fund is a research driven, market and sector neutral, "pairs" trading strategy investing primarily in large cap stocks from the ASX/S&P100 Index, with a ten year track record and annualised net returns of over 20%.
- Since inception in January 2002 the Fund has had positive annual returns each year, including an 11.95% return in 2008 and 20.6% in 2011, both of which were negative years for the ASX200.
- The Fund's risk statistics are also sound with maximum drawdown of 12.22% and 71% positive months. Both the Sharpe Ratio at 1.27 and the Sortino ratio at 2.23, indicate a high reward-to-risk ratio.
- The consistent returns across the investment history indicates the Fund's ability to provide positive returns in volatile and negative markets and significantly outperform the broader market.
Research and Database Manager
Australian Fund Monitors
Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund (pdf format)
Pengana Australian Equities Market Neutral Fund
19 Nov 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
The Pengana Australian Equities Market Neutral Fund delivered 1.0% for October and 8.5% for the last 12 months and a beta of -0.03 with the equity market.
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19 Nov 2013 - Pengana Australian Equities Market Neutral Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
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| Fund Overview | The manager's investment approach is premised on the belief that fundamental factors (such as earnings, cash flow and profit growth) affect stock prices, but that the adoption of quantitative techniques (i.e. computer based models) provides an advantage in assimilating and analysing this information, and building an efficient portfolio. The Fund's portfolio is constructed to be 'Market Neutral' i.e. it aims to have little or no overall exposure to movements in the equity market. The aim of low exposure to market movements is to enhance the consistency of the portfolio's performance and to provide diversification from other market oriented investments. |
| Manager Comments | Over the last 60 months the Fund has delivered an annual return of 9.23% as compared to the ASX 200 Accumulation Index return of 11.08%. However the Fund's low risk is indicated by a volatility 8.03% (13.57% Index), maximum draw-down of 13.47% (15.13% Index) and downside deviation of 5.00 (8.95 Index). The Fund's fundamental Earnings Revisions factor rebounded during October as a raft of profit warnings including AMP and Qantas hit the market. Quality was once again favoured as risk appetite remained flat over the month. Against this the Value factor sold off slightly as investors headed back towards stronger balance sheets and more certain cash flows with dividend yield once again being sought out by the market |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
Fund Review: Morphic Global Opportunities Fund
18 Nov 2013 - Australian Fund Monitors
Morphic's Global Opportunities Fund has recently completed its first year of operations having returned 33.63% over 15 months with volatility of 8.71% and a Sharpe ratio of 3.08 since inception in August 2012.
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18 Nov 2013 - Fund Review: Morphic Global Opportunities Fund
By: Australian Fund Monitors
Morphic Global Opportunities Fund (pdf format)
MORPHIC GLOBAL OPPORTUNITIES FUND
AFM has updated the Fund Review on the Morphic Global Opportunities Fund.
Key points include:
- The Fund is a global equity long/short manager with a long bias and a macro-economic overlay. The mandate allows the Fund to short sell, use derivatives and invest in assets such as commodities & currencies.
- Portfolio construction is stock selection agnostic with a bias to value based and momentum strategies. Risk management is a primary consideration in portfolio construction and the strong emphasis on risk is evidenced by the Fund's annualised standard deviation of 8.71% (10.01% ASX 200 Accum Index), maximum drawdown of 1.57% (6.72% Index) and downside deviation of 1.74 (5.30 Index).
- Morphic's philosophy is that only funds with flexible investment and hedging strategies will be able to deliver acceptable, steady, real, absolute returns over the investment cycle.
- The Fund is an early stage, boutique, Sydney-based fund established in 2012 with experienced CIO's, and an investment team of 6 including a risk manager.
- The Board has a majority of independent members with significant risk and investment experience.
For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Morphic Global Opportunities Fund (pdf format)
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. |
| More Information | » View detailed profile of this fund |
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 |
