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Over the month of July, the fund had a positive absolute return but lagged its reference indicator.
Our overweight to IT and underweight healthcare we supportive of our overall sector allocations over the month, nevertheless, our more defensive weight towards consumer staples has not supported our relative performance.
Our relative underperformance was also attributed to a few stocks that weighed on our performance. In the consumer discretionary space, Adidas was among our largest detractors over the period.
Similarly, Nestle in the staples sector also underperformed over the month. Both names suffered from tariff-driven demand risk, currency effect from a weaker dollar, which led to a more sentiment driven decline.
On the other hand, similar to the previous month, our overweight to technology and underweight to healthcare limited our underperformance. Nvidia, Samsung, Microsoft and TSMC were among our largest contributors in July driven by robust Q2 earnings lifting investor sentiment.
In July, we undertook very few changes to the portfolio. We continued building our position in Tencent following strong conviction from our analyst based on its opportunities related to AI and the long runway for advertising monetisation.
We added to Colgate-Palmolive on weakness and initiated a position in Eli Lilly, name that we held before.
We remain cautious in positioning our portfolio and continue to focus on higher quality companies.
North America | 61.2 % |
Europe | 25.7 % |
Asia | 9.9 % |
Asia-Pacific | 3.3 % |
The social theme is one of the most disregarded areas within ESG. Yet we believe that companies providing positive experiences to both their customers and employees are better positioned to achieve superior returns over the long run.
Market environment
• US second-quarter earnings season began strongly, with results exceeding expectations and boosting market confidence, pushing US equities higher.
• Technology stocks outperformed again in July, with the “Magnificent Seven” delivering strong earnings and revenue growth versus broader market
• European equities underperformed in July, as European tech firms warned of long-term growth risks from US trade policy and consumer sectors struggled with weak demand from China.
• Emerging market equities outperformed thanks to strong performance from Greater China, Korea, and Taiwan—driven by improved Chinese economic sentiment, AI investment momentum, and higher metal prices.