The Business Times

Merryn Somerset Webb

Most fund managers, however their funds are labelled, don't consider E and S to be a top performance driver.

Doubts about ESG funds aren’t slowing their spread

Money managers are tilting toward ESG, whether they want to or not

Stock price information displayed on a board at the London Stock Exchange Group Plc in the company's office atrium in the City of London, UK, on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. The FTSE 100 Index closed at a record high, on Monday, April 21, for the first time in more than a year, as recent equity market volatility and geopolitical risks prompted investors to pile into the defensive sectors that characterize the UK benchmark. Photographer: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg

Challenging the passive versus active fund wisdom

Research into high-actives shows more volatility and sharper corrections than average

Across the board, mentions of DEI and ESG in earnings calls with companies have fallen fairly dramatically as has their prominence in presentations.

ESG and DEI policies were always luxury goods

The end of the low-interest-rate era has coincided with both the public and corporate sectors pulling back on efforts to be virtuous

Austrian Marlene Engelhorn, from the family that owns Germany's chemical giant BASF, speaks as she holds a placard reading "Tax the rich!" at the entrance of the Congress Centre on the opening day of the WEF on Jan 15, 2024.
PERSPECTIVE

The rich don’t need to beg for more tax; they can just pay it

Patriotic millionaires want the wealthy to be taxed more. But there are better ways to give money to the state. 

Perhaps “dirty” industries — with their massive diesel machines, low levels of diversity and disruptive use of resources such as water – are actually “doing good” by enabling a low-carbon future.
WEALTH & INVESTING

The tyranny of ESG has run its course

The idea of ESG has been changing since the day it was just a twinkle in a marketer’s eye. Now it’s heading...

The Tokyo Stock Exchange closed the June 14 session with the Nikkei index at 33,502.42 points, the highest close in over 33 years.
WEALTH & INVESTING

It’s finally time to buy Japan

Japanese stocks have been cheap for a long time, but they’re set to get less cheap from now on

Technology names such as Microsoft are heavily represented in passive index funds because the bigger the market capitalisation the greater the weighting in the index.

It’s time to switch from passive to active investing

Active managers outperformed passive managers last year, for the first time in a long time. This may continue as the market dynamics...

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