Investment Officer

Vanguard and UBS have launched ESG funds, taking advantage of the increased popularity of sustainable investing in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Orchard Capital Management, by contrast, sees the deep unpopularity of value stocks as the perfect opportunity to launch a US value small cap fund…

ESG is becoming mainstream at an incredible pace. This is witnessed by the 166% growth in awarded ESG-labels for investment products by not-for-profit organisation LuxFlag over the past twelve months, says its general manager Sachin Vankalas in an interview with Investment Officer.

Total assets invested in Luxembourg-domiciled investment funds rose by 6.11% in April, taking the amount of assets invested back to €4.4 trillion. This is roughly the same level as a year earlier.

The S&P 500 Low Volatility Index, consisting of the 100 least volatile stocks in the index, was rebalanced last week. The outcome? No less than two thirds of the index has changed. Healthcare is now the largest single sector in the index.

While the annual rebalancing of the S&P 500 index yielded virtually no changes in its composition, that’s very different for the S&P 500 Low Volatility Index - which is rebalanced on a quarterly basis.

Two in three fund managers think we are still in a bear market, the latest Bank of America Fud Manager Survey shows. They expect another market correction later this year, most likely caused by a second wave of Covid-19 infections.

Several countries drastically reduced their exposure to US government bonds in March. Treasuries worth $256.6 billion were sold, according to data published by the US Treasury.

According to analysts, the outflow was mainly driven by the fact that a number of emerging countries needed the money to support their own currency. The most important sellers were Saudi Arabia, Brazil and India. Saudi Arabia sold the most with $25.3 billion, but still owns $159 billion worth of Treasuries.

Global dividend yields are expected to fall between 15 and 35% this year as the coronavirus pandemic hits companies’ earnings, according to Janus Henderson Investors.

The CSSF has launched a new website. The site is supposed to offer ‘a more intuitive and personalised navigation and a number of enhanced features’, according to Luxembourg’s financial regulator. However, the new website has been displaying technical difficulties since its launch on Monday.

The new website is supposed to offer:

Luxembourg-based Quintet Private Bank  has opened a branch in Zurich, Switzerland. The opening follows the acquisition of the local Bank am Bellevue, the asset management arm of Bellevue Group AG, and the approval of the transaction by the regulatory authorities.

US government debt is rising rapidly and the economy has come to a virtual standstill because of the coronavirus. However, treasury yields have never been this low. Yet, real alternatives to treasuries as a safe haven investment have yet to emerge, according to Quentin Fitzsimmons.