Global equity markets have continued to sell-off after US president Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on the nation’s trading partners last week.
Investors have been fleeing into safe havens such as gold and government bonds as the odds of a global recession start to climb.
US equity markets were already on the brink of a correction before tariffs were announced, but the S&P 500 index is now approaching bear market territory given its 17% peak to trough decline.
Although equity markets in Europe and China were a place investors could initially hide at the start of the year, the global sell-off has started to weigh on all regions.
US Growth strategies have been hit the hardest by the recent market turmoil, as some of last year’s top-performing funds were already down 25% before tariffs were announced.
There are a handful of strategies however that are still up double digits year-to-date and have emerged largely unscathed from recent market volatility so far.
Below, FSA highlights 16 funds for sale in Hong Kong and/or Singapore that are still holding up since tariffs were announced on April 2. All the data was compiled from FE Fundinfo*.
| Fund | 2024 return (%) | YTD return (%) | 2/4 to 7/4 return (%) |
| Amundi S&P Global Utilities ESG UCITS ETF | 3.31 | 13.95 | 3.12 |
| Schroder GAIA Egerton Equity | 12.48 | 12.19 | 0.76 |
| Mirae Asset Global X K-pop And Culture ETF | N/A | 10.17 | 0.56 |
| JGF-Jupiter Global Ecology Growth | 1.57 | 0.38 | 0.56 |
| BNY Mellon Global Equity Income | 7.26 | 6.64 | 0.54 |
| Vontobel Global Equity Income | 1.48 | 7.88 | 0.49 |
| BL Equities Dividend | 1.02 | 4.63 | 0.48 |
| Ostrum Ostrum SRI Global MinVol Equity | 5.23 | 7.89 | 0.45 |
| Fidelity Global Dividend | 10.21 | 8.55 | 0.44 |
| AB Low Volatility Total Return Equity Portfolio | 6.21 | 1.95 | 0.36 |
| VP Bank Future Citizen | 12.17 | 4.81 | 0.25 |
| MontLake Collidr Adaptive Global Equity UCITS | 5.02 | 8.14 | 0.24 |
| LGT Sustainable Quality Equity Hedged | -6.68 | -1.15 | 0.22 |
| Redwheel Global Equity Income | 1.01 | 9.11 | 0.2 |
| IFM Independent Fund Management AG Bonafide Global Fish | -5.13 | 8.6 | 0.16 |
| Xtrackers MSCI World Minimum Volatility UCITS ETF | 10.88 | 8.26 | 0.16 |
The Amundi S&P Global Utilities ESG UCITS ETF has held up incredibly well amid the market sell-off, up 3.1% since tariffs were announced and up almost 14% year-to-date.
This index measures the performance of large- and mid-cap utilities companies listed in developed markets globally, excluding Korea.
Exposure to the rising popularity of Korean culture however, has been another place investors have been able to weather the storm so far.
The Mirae Asset Global X K-pop And Culture ETF has held up surprisingly well, up 10.2% year-to-date and broadly flat during the market sell-off.
This exchange-traded-fund invests in Korean entertainment stocks such as JYP and HYBE which benefit from the growth of K-pop and K-dramas globally.
Elsewhere, a large number of actively managed, global dividend and equity income focused strategies also stand out with resilient returns year-to-date.
These include the likes of BNY Mellon Global Equity Income, Vontobel Global Equity Income and Fidelity Global Dividend.
Although not included in the list above, the SSGA SPDR S&P International Dividend ETF was one of the top-10 performing strategies year-to-date with a 8.9% return.
This ETF tracks the performance of the S&P 100 International Dividend Opportunities Index, a basket of 100 high-yielding international stocks, mostly from the utilities, real estate and consumer staples sectors.
Dividend-paying stocks have historically demonstrated defensive properties during times of market turbulence as investors place a high value on companies with stable cash flows able to return capital in the form of dividends.
*All figures were rebased in US dollars.
