Investment trust insider on Fidelity Asian Values – James Carthew: A good news story from Fidelity Asian Values
Rather than moaning about discounts on alternative asset funds again, how about a good news story from an equity-focused trust?
This past week saw the publication of annual results from Fidelity Asian Values (FAS). The numbers were good – a net asset value (NAV) total return of 11.4% for the 12 months ending 31 July, which was 3.9 percentage points more than the benchmark, the MSCI All Countries Asia ex Japan Small Cap index. A narrower discount meant shareholders got a return of 17.3%.
All of this was produced against a backdrop of pretty poor economic and market performance from the regional powerhouse of China.
Those good returns extend a good long-term record. Over the past 10 years, FAS is the second-best performing of all Asia-focused trusts in both NAV and share price terms, behind Pacific Horizon (PHI). The Fidelity trust has generated average returns of more than 10% per annum over this period and, since its launch in June 1996, it has beaten its benchmark by more than 200 percentage points.
Nitin Bajaj, a stock picker with a bias to value and one eye on protecting the downside risk in the portfolio, has managed the fund since April 2015… read more here