Asia-Focused Specialist Funds Rise In September - QuotedData

Tue, 08th Oct 2019 12:57

(Alliance News) - Baillie Gifford Japan and Fidelity Japan had a good month of September amid easing US-China trade tensions and rising monetary stimulus hopes, Quoteddata said on Tuesday.

Last week, Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the government was ready to take precautions if risks to the economy intensified, signaling a stimulus boost in the event that October's sales tax hike triggers a sharp downturn in growth.

Further, at its meeting last month the Bank of Japan kept monetary policy steady but indicated its willingness to expand monetary stimulus as early as its October 30-31 meeting in a bid to sustain economic growth.

The Japanese economy has been hurt by the protracted trade spat between the US and China.

Conversely, Woodford Patient Capital Trust's woes continued after the trust reported a sharp decline in net asset value in the first half.

At the beginning of June, Neil Woodford took the decision to suspend withdrawals from his equity income fund due to "an increased level of redemptions", with the fund needing time to "reposition" its portfolio invested in unquoted and less liquid stocks into more liquid investments.

Since then, the investor has made numerous disposals of stakes in London-listed firms.

Woodford Patient Capital Trust was demoted from the FTSE 250 in September, as part of the quarterly FTSE Russell index review changes.

The following were the best and worst performing London-listed investment companies in September:

Best performing funds in NAV terms

% change on month

Oakley Capital

14.1

HgCapital

14.1

Baillie Gifford Japan

9.6

Weiss Korea Opportunity

9.5

Aurora