The FSA Spy market buzz – 28 March 2025
JP Morgan Asset Management gets enhanced; Thailand wants some leverage; Natxis is surveying the world; A billionaire here, another there; Business social media lunacy; Andrew Carnegie’s wisdom and more.
The Allianz fund and the Pictet fund versus its benchmark, the MSCI World Index, since the Allianz fund’s launch in 2018. The Allianz fund’s benchmark index, the S&P Global Water Index, is not available from FE Analytics.
Both strategies have long track records, according to McDermott, but the Allianz fund’s retail share class just launched in Asia in 2018.
The institutional share class for the Allianz fund was incepted in 2008, while the Pictet fund started in 2000, according to data from Morningstar Direct.
Three-year cumulative performance
Fund/benchmark |
Performance |
Allianz Fund (institutional share class) |
21.65% |
S&P Global Water Index |
36.49% |
Pictet Fund |
26.09% |
S&P 500 |
39.99% |
Source: Allianz fund figures from Morningstar Direct, Pictet fund figures from FE Analytics.
McDermott is not able to comment about which product is expected to outperform or underperform in a particular market environment, given that the Allianz fund’s retail share class is new.
However, he said that he expects that both funds will do well when the water sector is outperforming the wider market. On the flipside, both are also expected to underperform generic global equity funds if other sectors are enjoying better periods.
In terms of volatility, McDermott believes that the Pictet fund is expected to be more volatile since it has more holdings and the fund is much larger.
“However, both are high-conviction, so it will all depend on them getting their stock picks right,” he said.
Three-year annualised volatility ratios
Fund/benchmark |
Standard deviation |
Sharpe ratio |
Allianz Fund (institutional share class) |
11.31 |
0.58 |
Pictet Fund |
10.46 |
0.78 |
Source: Morningstar
Year-to-date volatility
Fund/benchmark |
Standard deviation |
Allianz Fund (retail share class) |
11.41 |
Pictet Fund |
11.56 |
Source: FE Analytics
JP Morgan Asset Management gets enhanced; Thailand wants some leverage; Natxis is surveying the world; A billionaire here, another there; Business social media lunacy; Andrew Carnegie’s wisdom and more.
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