Don't forget the other side of the investing coin

THE last month was rather muted in global markets, as they digested the big moves in December and January while awaiting clarity on fiscal and monetary policy in the United States. Global equities, as measured by the MSCI AC World index, posted a 0.9 per cent rise while global bond yields resumed their upward march and the asset class posted a loss of 1.3 per cent.

While a simple benchmark of 70 per cent global equities and 30 per cent global bonds rose 0.2 per cent last month, our portfolio gained a marginal 0.1 per cent over the same time period.

Our portfolio's performance was driven by US and Europe equities while the emerging markets ex Asia (Latin America and emerging Europe) allocation and the fixed income holdings in high yield and emerging market bonds detracted from overall portfolio performance.