21 Apr 2026 - Glenmore Asset Management - Market Commentary

The war in Iran (which commenced in late February when the US and Israel launched air strikes at Iran) dominated headlines, causing heightened volatility and pressure upon global equity markets. The ASX All Ordinaries Accumulation Index suffered its sharpest decline in nearly 4 years, falling - 7.3%. The ASX Small Ordinaries Accumulation Index was hit harder, declining -11.0%. From a sector perspective, Energy was easily the top performer (+19.2%), whilst Defensive sectors such as Utilities (+4.9%), Consumer Staples (+2.8%) Telecom (+2.5%) also fared relatively well. The hardest hit sectors included Gold (-23.4%) and Technology (-12.9%) as investor risk aversion increased.

US markets held up relatively well compared to their international counterparts, with the S&P 500 and NASDAQ falling -5.1% and -4.8% during the month, respectively. The outperformance vs the ASX and other major indices such as the Euro Stoxx 50 (-9.3%) and FTSE 100 (-6.7%) may reflect the US' greater energy resilience and the perceived status of the US dollar as a safe-haven asset.

Whilst the volatility in recent months is clearly difficult emotionally, we would emphasise the importance of taking a long-term view. We continue to focus on the underlying business performance of the companies in our portfolio, as opposed to stock price movements. The recent declines in a wide range of stocks has created some excellent investment opportunities which we expect to drive returns over the next few years.

In bond markets, the US 10-year bond yield recorded a sharp increase, rising +38 basis points (bp) to 4.32%, as similar to the US dollar, it was sought by investors as a safe-haven asset amidst the ongoing conflict in Iran. Its Australian counterpart also rose sharply, recording a +32 basis point increase to 4.97%. The Australian dollar fell -3.1% to US$0.69, implying a decline of 2.1 cents.