Please click on the link below to find our latest report from VAR Investment Committee meeting for Q3, 2020

VAR Investment Committee – September 2020

Short read:

Positioning

• Our core sector exposures continue to be Tech, Consumer Staples, Healthcare, and Utilities
• The bulk of our bond investments remain Investment Grade and in Developed Markets
• We have reduced our cash allocation from c.12% to c.7%, having deployed in European equities (overweight) and also some US Equities
• We participated in new bond issues to take advantage of specific opportunities in a low yield environment
• Some of our new trades include buying Walmart, Medtronic, Veolia, and Nissan’s new bond issue

Next steps

• We are considering taking some profits off US equities prior to the US elections as a risk mitigation measure as well as potentially reducing our exposure to healthcare and stocks likely to suffer from a higher tax regime
• We are currently investigating whether the Japanese stock market holds potential for upside opportunities

Lessons learnt

• We missed out on US Treasuries which rallied significantly due to the Covid-linked market sell-off, having driven most of the performance of a few outperforming banks
• We also missed out on a rally from home improvement companies which strongly benefitted from the Covid related increase in home renovation and repairs

Please let us know if you have any questions.