Top of the Pops

We reveal the winners of our investment trust ratings for 2024... Our ratings seek to reward closed-ended funds which deliver attractive and persistent performance characteristics in three categories which we think match up to broad goals investors usually have: long-term growth, income and growth, and high current income. This includes strong performance versus a fund’s underlying market, as well as attractive risk characteristics which we think suggests they could continue to be premium optio

JPMorgan China Growth & Income

JCGI’s managers expect handsome long-term returns from their portfolio after last year’s sell-off…

JPMorgan China Growth & Income

JCGI is well-positioned for China’s reopening over the short term and the economy’s transition over the long term…

Ingredients for success

This year has been full of surprises, and not many of them good ones. Inflation figures surpassing expectations and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have been key drivers of tumultuous markets. Prior to 2022 investors were well rewarded for simply following trends, and the volatility this year is perhaps a painful reminder of the necessity for good portfolio diversification. Diversification of asset classes is important, but so is diversification within asset classes. Simply buying growth or buyi

Bull in a China shop

At times of high uncertainty, such as that which we now face, it is natural for investors to retrench from taking risk. However, for those investors who can stomach it, it has been proven time and again that capital should be deployed when investor confidence is low. While we don’t want to try to call the bottom, we highlight Chinese equities as a market where there could be attractive opportunities emerging after a year of underperformance. We take a look at what has driven the underperformanc

Time to change the record

Given none of us can see the future, diversification is a key tool in our armoury when it comes to building an investment portfolio. It would be bold, if not reckless, to own a series of investments that all require the same conditions to succeed. Traditionally there are two major sources of diversification for the average equity investor: bonds and overseas equities. The issues with the stock/bond correlation are well covered (and we touched on ourselves in recent strategy articles here and h

JPMorgan China Growth & Income

JCGI gears up for the long-term

Beyond the Middle Kingdom

China was flying high at the start of the year, having performed strongly during the initial impact of the pandemic and then again during the reflationary rally. Looking back over five years investors had made 189% in the MSCI China Index on a total return basis compared to just 112% in the MSCI ACWI. China’s performance was the key factor behind the strong performance of the broader emerging Asia markets.

JPMorgan China Growth & Income - Overview

JPMorgan China Growth & Income (JCGI) offers investors access to the China growth story via a carefully curated portfolio of companies the managers consider to be the long-term winners in a fast-developing market. The core of the approach is the detailed stock-specific research undertaken by a team of expert analysts who are mostly based in China. They cover large, mid-sized and small companies, including the relatively less well-known onshore A-share market. JCGI’s managers, Howard Wang, Rebecc

JPMorgan China Growth & Income - Overview

JPMorgan China Growth & Income (JCGI) invests in a portfolio of high growth companies listed in onshore China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. JCGI pays a dividend of 4% in quarterly installments almost entirely out of capital, as the managers focus on generating high total returns by investing in secular growth themes in China. The trust has generated a high absolute return and significant excess return against the local markets in recent years, as we discuss in the Performance section. Investments in i

JPMorgan Chinese - Overview

JPMorgan Chinese is an actively managed portfolio of stocks listed in China, including Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Stocks are selected on a bottom up basis for their long-term growth potential, and the portfolio is tilted to domestic Chinese consumption. Managers Howard Wang and Rebecca Jiang are able to call on the research of dedicated sector specialists focused on China as well as the industry specialists in the wider GEMs team. JPMorgan now has analysts on the ground in Shanghai to add to the tea

Ready for blast off? China A-Shares join the global indices

Being a huge but emerging economy, China is a much larger part of global stockmarkets and GDP than is reflected in the main global indices. As a result, many investors are structurally underexposed to one of the fastest growing parts of the world. The inclusion of A-Shares into the main MSCI indices in May allows investors outside China to invest in Chinese equities easily for the first time, which may have consequences for this trend. The opening up of Chinese markets to foreign capital may lea

LIBERUM: Plus500: Strategic progress pays dividends

Tatton Asset Management (TAM LN) - Record net inflows

Tatton, the leading on-platform discretionary fund manager (DFM) and IFA support services Group has released a trading update ahead of its results to 31 March 2024, due on 18 June 2024.

Hardman & Co Insight: 2023 was an annus horribilis for Quoted UK Infrastructure and Renewable Energy

The focus of Hardman & Co Research is on the nine quoted Infrastructure Investment Companies (IICs) and on the 22 Renewable Energy Infrastructure Funds (REIFs): the stocks analysed are all members of the Association of Investment Companies (AIC). We are updating our publication of January 2023, assessing both the lacklustre share price performances during 2023 and the key issues, including interest rates, inflation and power prices. As a 31-strong group, its combined market capitalisation is no

Ondo InsurTech FY24 Trading Update

Ondo InsurTech has released a brief post-YE update revealing its good progress continued through 2H24 and consequently FY24 will be in line with market expectations.

Foxtons Group (FOXT LN) - 1Q24 IMS shows real momentum

Foxtons Group plc first quarter revenue rose 9% to £35.7m (1Q23: £32.9m) with growth delivered across all business segments. Trading is in line with management's expectations.

BlackRock World Mining

BRWM’s managers: we see all the classic signs of high commodity prices...

Morning Note – 18 April 2024

NextEnergy Solar Fund - Attractive Refinancing

The refinancing of a £135m revolving credit facility and the extension of a similar £70m facility gives NESF firepower as development opportunities for new solar are especially attractive thanks to lower module prices in Europe. They give the fund key financial flexibility at a critical time as it pursues its capital recycling programme.

Foxtons Group - FY24 underpinned by market share gains

Foxtons Group’s Q1 revenue grew by 9%, supported by growth in all three divisions as the strategic initiatives continue to gain significant momentum, driven by investment in staff, best-in-class bespoke IT and data platforms. This implies that Foxtons’ medium-term targets are now coming into focus. Market share is being gained in all divisions, which puts Foxtons in a good position as the sales market stabilises. We maintain our valuation of 132p/share and believe that if interest rates stabilis

NextEnergy Solar Fund – High- and growing-income opportunity?

NextEnergy Solar Fund (NESF) is almost 10 years old. Since launch, it has built a £1.2bn, 933MW portfolio of 100 operating solar assets, powering the equivalent of over 330,000 homes, declared dividends totalling £333m, and avoided the emission of about 2.2 Mt CO2e. NESF is on track to pay 8.35p in dividends, with forecast dividend cover of about 1.3x. Share price weakness that has afflicted the whole sector means that dividend translates to a yield of 11.1%, one of the highest in its sector, a

The Hardman & Co Monthly: April 2024

Feature article: Steady as she goes, but could be better: A review of investment company liquidity since 2016 Liquidity is the lifeblood of equity markets. The measurement of liquid asset availability to a market or company is a way of gauging a market’s health. This article builds on our previous work, which analysed the liquidity data for non-financial trading companies, by applying the same analytical techniques to the investment companies (IC) space. We analyse liquidity for ICs as a whol

Initial Equity Trading Comments - 19 February 2024

M Winkworth+ (WINK, House Stock at 163p) - Solid FY23A results, well placed to grow

Hybridan Research: Sector Review: Artificial intelligence in UK cybersecurity: the human uplift 17/04/2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a double-edged sword in cybersecurity. Whilst new AI models, architectures, and innovations are emerging to protect the security posture of organisations, attackers are also benefiting from deepfakes, sophisticated phishing, and automation of malicious codes. To ensure the impact of AI on cybersecurity to be a net-positive, we need to pit good AI against bad AI. Point solutions enhanced with machine learning: Global cybersecurity has been built with point soluti

Resilient FY24, confident long-term outlook

Vp’s full year update highlights sector-leading results, once again benefiting from the diversity of its end markets and the quality of its specialist businesses. With results expected to be broadly in line with expectations, we trim our FY24 PBT forecast by c.5% to £39.0m, a shade below the FY23 outturn (£40.2m). We consider this an impressively resilient performance set against a mixed market backdrop. Under new leadership, a strategic refresh is underway and management is confident in long