The rally in risk assets in October broadened out in November, with strong returns across nearly all major asset classes and markets. MSCI indices showed developed equity markets returned 7.0% in the month, taking the gain from the mid-October low to 15%, while the best returns came from emerging markets, up 14.8% in November, driven by an extraordinary rise in China of 30%.
Imperium Capital Publication
Global Matters Weekly – 12 December 2022
What were you thinking?
by Tom Delic — Portfolio Manager
— A valuation discipline is designed to place the odds in your favour.
2022 has been an eventful year across financial markets, and while anything could happen during the last few weeks of December, I thought it would be worth reflecting on the extraordinary market behaviour we have seen over the past few years.
It feels as though there are numerous examples from the final throws of this cycle that could be placed under the microscope of the financial historian, decades from now. Could it be Austria’s 100-year bond that yielded 0.375% in December 2020, down over 60% since? Or perhaps US CCC rated corporate debt yielding 7.5% in the summer of 2021, a credit rating that has a long-term average annual default rate of 25%?
Market Snapshot
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- Global equities fell 2.5% on the week
- Four European Parliament officials, including vicepresident Eva Kaili, were charged with corruption offences as part of an investigation into claims that Qatar attempted to buy influence in a key upcoming vote
- Brent crude fell 11.1% on the week to $76.1 a barrel
- Gold remained flat on the week at $1797.3 an ounce
Global Matters Weekly – 5 December 2022
A turning point for UK mid-caps
by Mark Wright, CFA — Portfolio Manager
— Fearful investors heading for the exit have crushed valuations this year by driving down share prices.
So far, the year 2022 has been one that investors in UK mid-capitalisations (mid-caps) would probably prefer to forget. The first six months of this year witnessed the worst relative performance of UK mid-caps vs UK large capitalisations (caps) on a rolling six-month basis since 1986 (as far back as I could find data). By 30th June, they had underperformed UK large caps by a staggering 18%. The performance gap has since widened a little to over 19% on a year-to-date basis. The absolute performance of UK mid-caps is not as stomach churning, but at -15% it is still poor.
Market Snapshot
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- Global equities returned 1.1% last week
- Most World indices saw positive returns
- Brent crude rose 2.3% to $85.57 per barrel
- Gold rose 2.4% to $1797.63 per ounce