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.
European equities (including the UK), have underperformed the rest of the world the past few years.
On a three-year cumulative basis, the MSCI Europe Index had negative returns of nearly 10%, while the MSCI ACWI Index produced positive returns of 14.59%, according to data from FE Fundinfo.
The index has also underperformed its developed market peers during the same period, including the S&P 500 (14.59%) and Japan’s TOPIX Index (-1.8%).
However, sentiment seems to be turning. Both private banks and fund managers have revisited European equities as they have become attractively valued after years of underperformance.
Citi Private Bank, for example, has added undervalued European equities to its asset allocation recommendations. UBP, meanwhile, believes that European equities have become attractive, especially small- and mid-cap companies.
Fidelity also noted that UK equities have become attractively valued, especially after the negative sentiment associated with Brexit.
European equities have also climbed up the rankings among Asia’s fund selectors, according to Last Word Media Research, after several months of being the least favourite asset class.
Against this backdrop, FSA asked Mathieu Caquineau, Paris-based manager research at Morningstar, to compare two European (including UK) equity funds: the Jupiter European Opportunities Fund and the MFS Meridian European Research Fund.
Jupiter | MFS | |
Size | €107.5m ($120m) | €2.73bn ($3.06bn) |
Inception | 2001 | 1999 |
Manager | Cédric De Fonclare | 10-member analyst team |
Three-year cumulative return* | 0.94% | 11.15% |
Three-year annualised return** | 3.03% | 7.13% |
Three-year annualised alpha** | 0.37 | 4.57 |
Three-year annualised volatility** | 14.58 | 12.74 |
Morningstar analyst rating | Bronze | Silver |
Morningstar star rating | **** | ***** |
FE Crown fund rating | ** | **** |
OCF (retail share class) | 1.72% | 1.93% |
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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