by Jennifer Hill from interactive investor, 19th February 2024:
Markets have had to digest more than usual over the past five years. The period has seen the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as soaring inflation and sharp reversals in monetary policy from quantitative easing and rock-bottom interest rates to a sustained cycle of rising rates.
It’s a tough period over which to evaluate investment performance but a review of the 10 funds that a range of experts suggested to buy and hold forever in 2019 shows that all bar one have made money for investors..
Patrick Thomas, head of ESG investment at Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management, is sticking by Impax Environmental Markets as a means to capitalise on the long-term growth of the green economy..
Capital Gearing, a multi-asset investment trust with a capital preservation mandate, has disappointed over the past few years, particularly when viewed against stubbornly high inflation.
“To lose money over the past 12 months is especially galling,” says James Carthew, head of investment companies at QuotedData. He points to two main factors. First, rising interest rates have hit the valuation of longer-dated inflation-linked government bonds to which the trust is exposed.
“In addition, the general widening of investment trust discounts has hit its portfolio of investment companies,” says Carthew.
A core constituent of the Super 60, it remains a long-term buy and hold.
Carthew adds the widening of trust discounts “should rectify itself in time and has created more opportunities for the managers to add value”.
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