Performance of Platinum International fund versus global sector during 2020
Clifford and Cameron Robertson were also appointed to co-manage the firm’s Asia ex Japan strategies following the resignation of former manager Joseph Lai at the end of 2020 after 17 years. The $5.4 billion Platinum Asia fund had seen strong returns during 2020, returning 28.3% versus returns of 20% by the Asia ex Japan sector.
Clifford previously managed the strategies from 2003 to 2014 while Robertson had worked as co-manager of the $176 million Platinum International Technology fund since 2017.
Performance of Platinum Asia versus Asia Pacific ex Japan sector during 2020
Meanwhile, Nikola Dvornak would be appointed as a co-manager to the Platinum International fund and the Platinum Capital Ltd listed investment company, alongside Clifford and Smolinski. Having joined in 2006, he was currently manager of the $542 million Platinum European fund.
Source: FE Analytics
The three sectors fell sharply during the global market sell-off induced by the COVID-19 pandemic and none had since recovered.
Within the infrastructure equity sector only three funds out of 52 managed to make a return last year. These were Mercer Global Unlisted Infrastructure at 12.8%, RARE Infrastructure Income B at 7.02%, and RARE Infrastructure Income A at 6.5%.
The Mercer fund was also the only fund to regain losses since the March sell-off.
Top and bottom performing infrastructure funds during 2020
Source: FE Analytics
RARE Infrastructure (now ClearBridge) said its global income fund had performed strongly in the last quarter of 2020, inline with infrastructure and global equity indices which rose as two effective COVID-19 vaccines had been approved for use in many countries.
“Whilst inflation is a concern, it’s more of medium-term nature, rather than a near-term cyclical nature.”
However, he said markets had entered the year in a “cheery disposition”, based on faith in macro policy being delivered.
“Monetary policy has been important, but the challenge obviously for 2021 will be to get that fiscal follow through,” Miller said.
He said fiscal policy would go beyond the markets as it would help the disconnect between the markets and the real economy – the difference between Main Street and Wall Street.
“Fiscal policy will be important in repairing that and it can attack some of the less desirable distributional outcomes that have emerged from an emphasis on monetary policy to start with,” Miller said.
“China equity funds recorded their 30th consecutive retail inflow despite last week’s institutional exodus. Institutional investors were net redeemers for the second straight week as they looked to sidestep any fallout from official efforts to keep the COVID-19 pandemic contained going into the Chinese New Year, usually a period when millions of people travel within the country,” EPFR said.
EPFR found that Israel’s aggressive vaccination rollout program and its reputation in the cybersecurity space attracted investors looking at Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) markets and flows into Israel equity funds were the largest since Q2 of 2008.
Real estate investment trusts lost 7.6% during the year, and commodities lost 15%.
However, the first week of January saw commodities at the top of the pack with returns of 3.4%, followed by MSCI emerging markets at 1.9%, MSCI EAFE at 1.4%. and gold at 0.9%.
High flows into gold continued during the first week at US$1.5 billion which BofA said was the largest inflow since August, 2020.
However, the largest flow last week went to cash at US$29.1 billion, followed by US$14.9 billion into bonds, and US$11.2 billion into equities.
According to latest data by FE Analytics, within the Australian Core Strategies universe, since the start of 2020 to 30 November, 2020, BetaShares Global Gold Miners ETF Currency Hedged was the top performing gold fund at 20.29%.