December 2024 performance
It was a disappointing month for financial markets with sell-offs in both bonds and equities. There was a normalisation of the yield curve with higher rates at higher maturities, meaning longer bonds sold off more than shorter dated ones over the month. Global equities similarly experienced a weaker month with the Japan (1.1%) and Emerging Markets (1.4%) the only regions to post positive returns. In contrast the US and UK were down -1.1% and -1.2% respectively. There was a rotation away from Value (-4.3%) into Growth (1.9%) and global small cap struggled over the month down -4.6%. Equity sector wise, only Consumer Discretionary (3.9%) and Information Tech (2.2%) experienced positive returns over the month with Materials (-6.9%) and Energy (-6.3%) the weakest performers.
All this resulted in negative returns over the month with portfolios, however most portfolios were ahead of their IA sectors illustrating strong relative performance. Interestingly, there wasn’t much range between performance across risk profiles. The Passive range experienced the best performance returning between -0.7% and -0.2% and the Active range returned between -0.7% and -1.1%. Predictably the Blended range was between the two returning -0.7% and -0.6% over the month. The Sustainable range experienced very similar returns to the Active range, between -0.7% and -1.1% and the Income range was the weakest due to its value bias, returning between -1.1% and -0.8%.
Year to date 2024
Throughout 2024, all of our portfolios experienced positive performance in both the absolute and relative sense. The Passive range has experienced the strongest performance returning between 4.3% and 14.7%. The Sustainable portfolios have returned between 4.7% and 11.4% outperforming the Active portfolios, which returned between 4.2% and 9.8%, but sitting a little behind the Passive portfolios. As to be expected, the Blended portfolios have experienced returns in between the Active and Passive ranges, returning 4.2% to 12.2%. The Income portfolios have experienced the weakest performance with returns between 3.7% and 7.4%.
