After a fall of nearly 55% in the MSCI China Index between its peak in February 2021 and the middle of March this year, there are signs investors are starting to take an interest in the market again. While the short-term outlook for earnings growth is still fairly poor, ‘we believe the structural long-term trends underpinning China’s growth story are still intact’ says Fidelity’s ...

Rising interest rates since the turn of the year, runaway inflation and Russia’s shocking invasion of Ukraine have shaken the investment kaleidoscope in 2022 and forced many investors to reposition portfolios for an increasingly uncertain world. This is reflected in developments in the investment trusts universe, which has thrown up some obvious and more surprising winners in the opening ...

The past year’s performance for China-focused funds and investment trusts in general has been disappointing, yet the longer-term track record is quite the opposite. The average return from China open-ended funds over the past 12 months is -3.6%, according to FE Fundinfo. That reflects a regulatory clampdown in the country which has weighed on share prices for big Chinese stocks like ...

The MSCI China index is down by more than 20% over the past three months in response to regulatory clampdown in the country and a series of downgrades to Chinese growth forecasts. This has provided further ammunition to sceptics of the Chinese economic miracle, who argue that investing in the region is an increasingly risky proposition. However, there is a compelling argument that we have ...

The private equity sector has been the standout performer this year, according to a new research report by broker Stifel. The study highlighted the best and worst performing investment trusts in a third quarter sector review, and the results show that investors have increasingly been drawn to private equity for net asset value (NAV) growth. UK small caps and UK real estate also performed ...

The sell-off in various Chinese stocks has been one of the big investment stories of the year. The threat of regulatory interference from China was quietly bubbling away as 2021 began, but few people thought it would blow up to become such a major force on the markets. China-related products were among the most sold investment trusts by AJ Bell Youinvest customers in August, illustrating how ...

During the final week of July, Chinese shares endured heavy selling with the CSI 300 index, the MSCI China Information Technology index and the Hang Seng Tech index plunging into negative territory for the year. As a result, many popular open-ended China-focused funds such as Allianz China (BKFW2B5) which has €11.1 billion of assets and the $2.4 billion Fidelity China Focus (B51RX72) also ...

China-focused investment trusts have seen their share prices fall by as much as 9% after investors started to panic about increased regulatory interference from Beijing. JPMorgan China Growth & Income (JCGI) was the worst faller among this group, followed by Baillie Gifford China Growth Trust (BGCG), Pacific Horizon Investment Trust (PHI) and Fidelity China Special Situations ...

There has been a simmering debate since the start of 2021 as to whether China might overtake the US as the engine of world growth over the coming decade. However, our belief is that ultimately the US will continue to rule the roost economically and politically for the rest of this decade. Its pro-business attitude, both from Capitol Hill and the Federal Reserve, will ensure that companies ...

A major sell-off in technology stocks overnight in the US has spilled over into European and UK markets, with several investment trusts tanking. The UK’s largest closed-end fund and sole FTSE 100 member, Scottish Mortgage (SMT), slumped 4% in early trading to £10.95, the stock’s lowest since early March. Scottish Mortgage holds big bets on Amazon, Tesla and Tencent, the Chinese social ...

From a human standpoint, 2020 has proved a shocker of a year, with the unforeseen pandemic wreaking havoc on health and the associated lockdowns precipitating a global economic downturn that may take years to battle back from. Yet paradoxically, 2020 has been anything but negative from a markets perspective, with equity indices roiled by the onset of the crisis then recovering strongly with a ...