Equities – Feature
Equities remain a cornerstone for many institutional invest- ment portfolios, particularly defined benefit (DB) schemes which are still open to new members, such as the local gov- ernment pension scheme (LGPS) pools, and the rapidly grow- ing defined contribution (DC) market. But the combination of a decade of quantitative easing and the Covid-19 crisis has cre- ated a challenging environment for equity investors. When stock markets around the world crashed in March, bil- lions of dollars were instantly written off share prices. But it is remarkable that these sudden price movements did not result in significant changes to the level of available capital. Similarly, when markets suddenly started rising again in May, the
inflows and outflows of global equity ETFs remained more or less stable, according to BlackRock.
And while European investment fund association EFAMA reported €176bn (£156bn) in net outflows from liquid UCITS funds in the first quarter, the effects on the net asset value of these funds were only marginal. “Total net assets of UCITS and AIFs declined by 11.6% in the first quarter,” says Bernard Delbecque, senior director for eco- nomics and research at EFAMA. “The sharp fall in global financial markets following the Covid-19 outbreak explained 94% of the decline, with the rest due to net outflows.” The Shiller PE index, which is based on inflation-adjusted
Issue 96 | September 2020 | portfolio institutional | 45
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
