HEAD-TO-HEAD: BNY Mellon IM versus Ninety One

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Darius McDermott, Chelsea Financial Services

INTRODUCTION

Despite the global slowdown caused by the pandemic last year, equities have continued to be a desirable asset class, with equity funds (including ETFs) attracting $85bn in net inflows in 2020 globally, according to data from Morningstar Direct.

In Hong Kong, the demand for equity products had also been higher. Equity funds accounted for 30.7% of total fund gross sales last year, compared with just 17% in 2019, data from the Hong Kong Investment Funds Association shows.

It was a good year for investors who had allocated in equities. Globally, the equities markets produced positive returns despite the huge market sell-off in March, with the MSCI ACWI Index performing 16.83% for the full year 2020.

Although market participants expect volatility to continue in 2021, wealth and asset managers continue to have a positive outlook for the equities market.

Stefan Hofer, Hong Kong-based managing director and chief investment strategist at LGT Bank Asia, said that although markets might experience short-term corrections as investors react to temporary glitches with vaccine delivery or fears about new strains of Covid-19, “the longer-term upward trend for risk assets remains intact.”

He recommends overweight allocations to Europe and Japan, and his preferred sectors are healthcare, communication services, information technology and materials.

Tai Hui, Asia chief market strategist at JP Morgan Asset Management, is also confident about the outlook of the global equity markets. He recommends investors to diversify globally to some of the sectors that are worst hit by the pandemic.

Against this background, FSA asked Darius McDermott, managing director at Chelsea Financial Services, to compare two global equity products: The BNY Mellon Global Leaders Fund and the Ninety One Global Equity Fund.

Source: FE Fundinfo, Morningstar Direct.

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