Welcome to your August update
Dear investor, welcome to the Lifestages Investment Funds Investor Update for August 2024. Below you will find the latest performance data and market commentary from your SBS Wealth Investment Management Team.
Performance data
Performance as at 31 July 2024.
| Fund Option | 1M | 1Y | 5Y pa |
| World Equity Portfolio | 3.05% | 18.55% | 11.41% |
| Australasian Equity Portfolio | 4.51% | 4.12% | 3.52% |
| World Bond Portfolio | 1.32% | 4.93% | -0.13% |
| New Zealand Bond Portfolio* | 2.46% | 8.32% | 0.70% |
* Previously Corporate Bond Portfolio
Performance is shown after fees and before tax. For more information about how performance is calculated and more performance periods, click here.
Market update
Almost all equity sectors and fixed interest segments were positive in July. This is great news for investors in our investment funds, or our newly created diversified strategies, as all four funds and all four strategies posted a positive return for the month of July.
Performance was led by the domestic markets, with the Australasian Equity Portfolio benefiting, up 4.5%. Across company stocks, performance was very varied. Freightways, Summerset, Port of Tauranga, Wesfarmers, Mainfreight, and EBOS Group all delivered strong double-digit percentage returns.
Globally, company performance was positive but more volatile. Within the World Equity Portfolio, shares in Tesla and Roche Holdings were up 20%, and UnitedHealth Group 16%. while some were down around 3-5% (although most of these have greatly appreciated year to date).
As part of our investment strategy, we target certain long-term themes. Some of the fund’s theme holdings also performed well in July, with Healthcare Innovation up 10%, Global Clean Energy 9%, and Global Infrastructure 7%.
Two recent investments also had a good month in July. Irish headquartered US firm Accenture, specialising in information technology services and consulting, was up 12%, and US company Thermo Fisher Scientific (global supplier of analytical instruments, clinical development solutions, specialty diagnostics, laboratory, pharmaceutical and biotechnology services) was up almost 14%.
Long-term bond yields reduced a little in July, on the back of central banks in Europe starting to cut interest rates and hope that the US Fed and NZ Reserve Bank will do the same soon. This was positive news for the World Bond Portfolio, up 1.32% for the month, and the recently relaunched New Zealand Bond Portfolio (previous called Corporate Bond Portfolio) up 2.46%. This was a great first month for the relaunched fund.
Investors in the New Zealand Bond Portfolio should note the benchmark for this fund will change from S&P/NZX A-Grade Corporate Bond Index to Bloomberg NZ Bond Composite 0+ Yr Index from 1 October 2024. This is to better align with the underlying investment strategy. The main difference is the composite (new benchmark) is a mixture of government debt and corporate debt, while the A-grade corporate (current benchmark) is purely corporate debt.