Head To Head

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Barings vs JP Morgan

FSA compares the Barings Eastern Trust Fund and the JP Morgan Asian Growth Fund.

by Francis Nikolai Acosta 2 November 201810 November 2020

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Luke Ng, FE Advisory Asia

Introduction

Global equity markets have become volatile in 2018 and emerging markets have been especially hard hit, underperforming developed markets, according to Luke Ng, Hong Kong-based vice president at FE Advisory Asia.

Year-to-date the MSCI Emerging Markets Index was double-digit negative (-14.07%), compared to the MSCI AC World Index (-2.55%), according to FE data.

Performance in Asia has been slightly worse, with the MSCI Asia (ex-Japan) index returning -14.99%.

“Asia-Pacific equities suffered quite badly due to various factors,” Ng said.

One factor has been the strengthening of the US dollar, which has negatively affected emerging market currencies, especially for countries that have low dollar reserves and high trade deficits such as India and Indonesia, according to Ng.

Investor sentiment in the region has also turned sour amid China and US trade tensions, he added.

However, Ng remains positive on Asia. He believes the domestic economies and earnings expectations on average will remain strong over the long-term.

Against this backdrop, FSA asked Ng to compare two Asia-Pacific (ex-Japan) growth funds: the Barings Eastern Trust and the JP Morgan Asian Growth Fund.

	Barings	JP Morgan
Size	£115.2m ($149m)	$250m
Inception	1985	2007
Manager/s	Lee Hyung-Jin, Eunice Hong and Lim Soo-Hai	Joanna Kwok and Mark Davids
Three-year return*	22.88%	32.68%
YTD alpha**	-1.75	6.09
YTD volatility**	19.25	18.83
FE Crown fund rating	****	****
OCF	1.73%	1.64%

Source: FE Analytics

*Trailing three years to 2 November

**Year-to-date to 2 November

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