market commentary - march 2015

10
March 2015 Chart of the Month: Gareth Lewis CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER Louie French RESEARCH ANALYST MARKET COMMENTARY CHART OF THE MONTH EXPLAINED: 24 February was a new milestone in the history of equity markets as both the FTSE 100 and the S&P 500 reached new individual highs as equities rose on the news that a temporary deal had been reached between Greece and its creditors. Firstly, the S&P 500 closed at 2115 points aſter gradually increasing from the start of the month and throughout much of 2014. Meanwhile on the same day the FTSE 100 finally climbed to a new high, over 15 years since the previous peak was reached on the final trading day of 1999. At 6949 the FTSE has nearly doubled since the low of 3512 points recorded on the 3 March 2009 amidst the debt crisis. The distortion QE has had on equity markets is clear to see with equity valuations remaining a challenge, whilst a level of market uncertainty lingers now the QE tap has been switched off in the US and the UK braces itself for a period of volatility ahead of May’s General Election. Greece and its creditors agreed to a four month extension of its emergency funding, providing a temporary reprieve from a forced euro exit. Otherwise the Eurozone region showed signs of more positive growth, despite current deflation, with exporters benefiting from a weaker euro. In the Far East, China cut interest rates again for the second time in three months in response to slowing economic momentum and rising deflation risks. Meanwhile Japan emerged from its third recession since 2009, but growth remains weak, suggesting a fragile recovery. Developed market equities and credit spreads performed strongly through February, with European and Japanese equities once again leading the market higher. In sovereign debt markets, UK Gilts and US Treasuries gave back some of their recent gains, whilst Eurozone yields remained anchored close to their record lows. The latest US economic indicators fell slightly short of expectations but still showed steady expansion. In particular monthly employment growth was stronger than expected, and came on top of positive revisions to November and December’s initial estimates, prompting Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen to prepare investors for a potential change in the terms of their interest rate guidance. Market & Economic Update

Upload: alex-de-wit

Post on 08-Aug-2015

31 views

Category:

Documents


2 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Market Commentary - March 2015

March 2015

Chart of the Month:

Gareth Lewis CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER

Louie French RESEARCH ANALYST

MARKET COMMENTARY

CHART OF THE MONTH EXPLAINED:

24 February was a new milestone in the history of equity markets as both the FTSE 100 and the S&P 500 reached new individual highs as equities rose on the news that a temporary deal had been reached between Greece and its creditors. Firstly, the S&P 500 closed at 2115 points after gradually increasing from the start of the month and throughout much of 2014. Meanwhile on the same day the FTSE 100 finally climbed to a new high, over 15 years since the previous peak was reached on the final trading day of 1999. At 6949 the FTSE has nearly doubled since the low of 3512 points recorded on the 3 March 2009 amidst the debt crisis. The distortion QE has had on equity markets is clear to see with equity valuations remaining a challenge, whilst a level of market uncertainty lingers now the QE tap has been switched off in the US and the UK braces itself for a period of volatility ahead of May’s General Election.

Greece and its creditors agreed to a four month extension of its emergency funding, providing a temporary reprieve from a forced euro exit. Otherwise the Eurozone region showed signs of more positive growth, despite current deflation, with exporters benefiting from a weaker euro.

In the Far East, China cut interest rates again for the second time in three months in response to slowing economic momentum and rising deflation risks. Meanwhile Japan emerged from its third recession since 2009, but growth remains weak, suggesting a fragile recovery.

Developed market equities and credit spreads performed strongly through February, with European and Japanese equities once again leading the market higher. In sovereign debt markets, UK Gilts and US Treasuries gave back some of their recent gains, whilst Eurozone yields remained anchored close to their record lows.

The latest US economic indicators fell slightly short of expectations but still showed steady expansion. In particular monthly employment growth was stronger than expected, and came on top of positive revisions to November and December’s initial estimates, prompting Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen to prepare investors for a potential change in the terms of their interest rate guidance.

Market & Economic Update

Page 2: Market Commentary - March 2015

March 2015

Our view – asset allocation summary

GENERAL SUMMARY• The outlook for the global economy remains uncertain, and the recovering performance of the US

is offsetting slowdowns elsewhere. However, the continued strength of the US dollar is likely to be a headwind to the US economy.

• With the Bank of Japan and now Europe pursuing more accommodative monetary policy whilst the US and UK are contemplating tightening, policy differentiation is likely to be the key determinant of investment returns going forward.

• Chinese stimulus may support equities but will ultimately be futile unless accompanied by real reform. The Chinese authorities continue to misallocate capital, creating a disjointed and increasingly unstable economy.

• The collapse in the oil price is both a short-term threat and longer-term opportunity as the effect of supply-side rebalancing manifests more quickly than the positive impact on consumption. In our opinion, the supply response is expected by Q3 2015, and following this the oil price will likely start to recover.

• We have increased our exposure to high quality investment grade and sovereign debt, particularly favouring US dollar denominated assets, at the expense of high yield debt.

• We have also increased our exposure to commercial property.

EQUITIES• Equity valuation remains a challenge, and equity markets currently look expensive relative to their

own history, in particular those that have been driven by QE, more specifically the US with high corporate margins and aggressive share buybacks distorting figures.

• The absence of QE in the US will now be challenging, and expectations are now focused on the impact of the ECB initiation of QE to sustain liquidity flows, which is expected to have a similar impact on their equity market. Combined, the ECB and BoJ are expected to inject the equivalent of more than US$1 trillion by the end of 2015.

• Japanese equities currently look cheap on a relative basis, and it is expected the flow of money into Japan will likely be supportive for some time, although the Bank of Japan is expected to continue to drive down the yen through its QQE (Quantitative and Qualitative Easing) programme.

• We are cognisant that investment in the UK market broadly includes indirect exposure to commodity prices from the large-cap mining stocks based here, but believe that much of the concern is already in the price. The UK market also offers income in this low growth, low inflation environment.

• In emerging markets and Asia Pacific, there is increasing dispersion between country and region in terms of valuation and returns, with many Asia Pacific currencies pegged to the US dollar, and competitiveness being eroded in the face of Japan devaluating its currency.

FIXED INCOME• Bond prices have been distorted to such a degree that investors are now unable to determine

whether risks and concerns are priced in. Liquidity in many parts of the market remains poor while spreads have widened as sovereign yields have fallen.

• Emerging market hard currency debt is a concern, across sovereign, corporate and bank debt. Many of these countries are commodity dependent, and the continued strength of the US dollar is seen as a negative. There is a lack of liquidity in this market, which is likely to be accentuated during risk off periods.

• The lack of liquidity in the high yield market is of particular concern.

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY • Commercial property prices remain well below their 2007 highs, and the IPD forecasts are positive.

The UK economy is relatively strong and property returns are believed to be more attractive.

COMMODITIES • We believe the asset class remains relatively unappealing, even more so due to US dollar strength.

Market & Economic Update

2 Market & Economic Update • March 2015

Page 3: Market Commentary - March 2015

NORTH AMERICA, UK AND WESTERN EUROPE

only marginally. Headline Euro area annual inflation in January was down to -0.6%, whilst core inflation which excludes energy, food, alcohol & tobacco was marginally down to 0.6% in January. In the UK, data released by the Office for National Statistics saw CPI grow by only 0.3% in January, down from the 0.5% recorded in December and to its lowest level since official records began in 1996. The main contributors to the fall in UK inflation were unsurprisingly food and transport, with January petrol and diesel prices reported to be at their lowest since November 2009 and February 2010 respectively. Meanwhile, core inflation was slightly up in January with a reading of 1.4% compared to 1.3% in December. Separately the Bank of England’s latest inflation report has forecast inflation to fall further in the near term before beginning to rise in the second half of 2015. In the US, headline inflation fell further than expected in January, with CPI down by -0.7% month-on-month to -0.2% year-on-year. However, core inflation appears a lot more robust, up by 0.2% month-on-month and holding steady at 1.6% year-on-year.

• Staying in the US, the Bureau of Economic Analysis released its second estimate of US GDP in Q4 2014, with the overall quarterly growth figure revised down from 2.6% to 2.2%. The strength of the US Dollar was evident with imports revised up further to 10.1% growth in the quarter. However, the full year GDP growth figure for 2014 was unchanged from the flash estimate released in January at 2.4%. Separately, US non-farm payrolls data painted a strong picture of a labour recovery in the US, with the addition of 257,000 jobs in January. This figure was ahead of expectations and was accompanied by improved revisions to the November and December figures. However, the unemployment rate increased slightly in January by 0.1% to 5.7%, which some analysts are interpreting as more people being drawn back into the jobs market. Wages were also up in January with average hourly earnings increasing by 0.5%, which resulted in annual growth of roughly 2%.

• The latest batch of economic data releases prompted Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen to prepare investors for a potential change in the terms of their interest rate guidance. Speaking before a US Senate committee, Yellen gave a cautiously optimistic review of the US economy, stating that the tightening of monetary policy would begin when the Federal Open Market Committee was “reasonably confident” that inflation will return to its target of 2%. All eyes will be on their next meeting in March for any change in tone from the Fed.

• Meanwhile, in the UK the second estimate for UK GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2014 was confirmed at 0.5%, with an annual growth figure of 2.6% for 2014. Separately, UK labour market data released in February saw UK unemployment fall further, with the unemployment rate for the period October to December 2014 down to 5.7%. This figure was down-0.3% from the previous three-month period, July to September, and down by -1.5% year on year. The number of people in employment was up 103,000 from the previous three-month period and up 608,000 year on year, resulting in a total figure of 30.9m (73.2%) of people aged 16 to 64 in work. This rate is equal to the one recorded in the period December 2004 to February 2005, the highest since comparable records began in 1971. Average weekly wages were also up for the period October to December 2014, with the total pay growth rate, which includes bonuses, increasing by 2.1% from the same period in 2013 to £489 per week. The regular pay growth rate, which excludes bonuses, was up 1.7% from the same period in 2013 at £457 per week. However, this figure was slightly down on the 1.8% growth rate recorded for September to November 2014.

MAJOR DEVELOPED COUNTRIES’ EQUITY MARKETS

S&P 500 – PE: 19.9x, Yield: 2.0%

FTSE All Share – PE: 16.8x, Yield: 3.2%

DataStream Total European Market – PE: 18.2x, Yield: 2.9%

Returns over last six months denominated in local currencies

• Following on from its strong performance in January, the European equity market once again outperformed the majority of its developed market peers in February, with the FTSE World Europe ex UK TR index returning 6.67% in local currency terms, and 3.05% in sterling terms. The S&P 500 TR index was also up on the month, returning 5.75% in local currency terms, and 2.77% in sterling terms. Both sets of index returns in sterling terms were evidently impacted by currency movements during February. The FTSE 100 TR index returned 3.32% for investors who elected to stay closer to home.

• In Europe, fears of a Grexit were temporarily put on hold as the ruling Syriza party through Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis agreed a four month extension to its emergency funding with creditors. However, the long-term future of Greece still remains on a knife edge as its new political leaders battle to balance the demands of both its creditors and the electorate on a long journey to economic reform.

• Staying in Europe, flash estimates from Eurostat in February saw euro area GDP grow by 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2014, resulting in annual GDP growth for 2014 of 0.9%. The quarterly 0.3% reading was marginally ahead of analyst forecasts which had predicted GDP growth would be flat from the third quarter of 2014 at 0.2%. Looking at the data on an individual country basis, German GDP growth in the fourth quarter was positive, up 0.7% on Q3 2014, which resulted in annual growth of 1.6% for 2014. Meanwhile, data from France and Italy were less positive with France seeing fourth quarter GDP growth of just 0.1% and annual growth of 0.4%, whilst quarterly Italian GDP growth stagnated and worryingly saw the economy contract during 2014 by -0.4%.

• Inflation data were once again amongst the headlines in February, with January’s inflation data showing that only five European Union countries (UK, Sweden, Austria, Romania and Malta) avoided a deflationary figure – and even then

(FTSE World Europe ex UK data unavailable)

Market & Economic Update

3 Market & Economic Update • March 2015

Page 4: Market Commentary - March 2015

JAPAN, ASIA AND THE EMERGING MARKETS

Topix PE: 19.1x, Yield: 1.6% (Country yields and PEs relate to a sample of stocks that cover at least 75% of each market’s capitalisation and are denominated in local currency)

Source: FactSet

Perfo

rman

ce (%

)

MSCI AC Asia Pacific ex Japan TR

Topix TR

MSCI Emerging Markets TR

ASIAN & EMERGING MARKETS, PERCENTAGE GROWTH, TOTAL RETURN

Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb85

90

95

100

105

110

115

120

as January’s inflation reading dropped from 1.5% in December to 0.8%. Additional weakness was visible in the latest trade data, with total exports down -12% month-on-month and -3.3% year-on-year, whilst total imports were down dramatically by -21% month-on-month and -20% year-on-year. The strength of the Renminbi was evident in some of the export data, with year-on-year exports to Europe down by-4.6%, whilst exports to Japan were also down -20.6%. The import figures point directly to a structural slowdown in domestic demand. Collectively the export and import figures have resulted in a record trade surplus of $60 billion in January, up from $49.6 billion in December.

• Both Asia Pacific and emerging market equities produced positive performance in local currency terms in February, with the MSCI AC Asia Pacific ex Japan TR index returning 3.08% and the MSCI Emerging Markets TR index returning 3.30%. However, in sterling terms both were just above par in February, with the MSCI AC Asia Pacific ex Japan TR index returning 0.29% and the MSCI Emerging Markets TR index returning 0.21%.

• Japanese equities led the way in February in local currency terms, with the Topix TR returning 7.71% and 2.86% in sterling terms.

• February saw further signs of a slowdown in the Chinese economy,

• The People’s Bank of China reacted by firstly cutting 50 bps in the Reserve Requirement Ratio, with a further 50 bps cut for those banks particularly geared in to SME lending. Later in the month it also cut interest rates, reducing the one-year lending rate by 25 bps to 5.35%. Forecasters are predicting that there will be further easing on both of these rates/ratios this year, but it’s worth highlighting that the PBOC also made large sales of foreign exchange reserves in the fourth quarter of 2014 as it battles to control both its currency and economy.

• Meanwhile, data released from the Bank of Japan showed that the economy was out of recession in the fourth quarter of 2014, with annualised growth of 2.25%. This figure was below expectations, but there were more signs of economic growth in Japan, with key machinery orders rebounding aggressively from -14.6% previously to 11.4% year-on-year. Reports in the Japanese press also suggested that the Bank of Japan was cooling on the prospect of becoming more aggressive with its monetary policy.

NORTH AMERICA, UK AND WESTERN EUROPE continued

FTSE 100 TR

S&P 500 TR

FTSE World Europe ex UK TR

Source: FactSet

Perfo

rman

ce (%

)

DEVELOPED MARKETS, PERCENTAGE GROWTH, TOTAL RETURN

Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb85

90

95

100

105

110

115

Market & Economic Update

Page 5: Market Commentary - March 2015

March 2015FIXED INCOME

• The Barclays Gilt index was down -4.44% in February, reflecting the risk on sentiment which was seen in markets during the month. Government bond yields in the US and UK rose sharply following February’s positive economic data, particularly in the US where market expectation of a rise in interest rates has been brought forward following the jobs data we highlighted earlier. Ten-year gilt yields increased by over 40bps, to end the month just under 1.80%.

• This sentiment was also a driver of the high yield market in the month, which reversed a recent trend of weakness as the BofA Merrill Lynch Global High Yield index outperformed the BofA Merrill Lynch Sterling Corporate TR Index in February. In local currency terms the indices returned 2.43% and -2.69% respectively. In last month’s review we commented that the falling price of oil had impacted the US high yield market due to the significant proportion of energy issuers. The modest rebound in the price of oil during February helped the Barclays US High Yield indices return over 2% in the month.

Source: FactSetBofA Merrill Lynch Global High Yield TR

BofA Merrill Lynch Sterling Corporate Bond TR

Perfo

rman

ce (%

)

FIXED INTEREST MARKETS, PERCENTAGE GROWTH

Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb92

94

96

98

100

102

104

106

108

110

112

Market & Economic Update

5 Market & Economic Update • February 2015

Page 6: Market Commentary - March 2015

March 2015CURRENCIES

• The currency markets have become increasingly volatile in recent months, as central banks globally continue to implement easing monetary policy. The actions of the People’s Bank of China have already been highlighted, but February also saw action by central banks in a number of countries to tackle deflation. These included Australia, Denmark, Sweden and Turkey.

• Australia cut its central borrowing rate by 0.25% to 2.25% and the Australian Dollar was down -2.32% versus Sterling in February. Whilst Denmark went further into negative territory, cutting interest rates by a further 25 bps to -0.75%. The Danish Krone was down -3.63% versus Sterling in the month, but maintained its peg to the Euro. Meanwhile, Sweden cut its main repo rate from 0 to -10%, with the Swedish Krona down -3.61% against Sterling during the month. Turkey cut interest rates by reducing the overnight rate by 50 bps to 10.75% and the official repo rate 25 bps to 7.5%. The Turkish Lira was down -5.75% versus Sterling in February.

• Sterling strengthened against the Euro, the Japanese Yen and the US Dollar during February. Relative to Sterling the Euro was down -3.4%, Japanese Yen was down -4.5% and the US Dollar was down -2.8% in the month.

• The Russian Rouble continued to be volatile, after falling by 14.68% in January versus the US Dollar, the Rouble was up 13.77% against the Dollar in February.

Source: FactSet

Euro

Japanese yen

US dollar

Perfo

rman

ce (%

)

CURRENCY RETURNS RELATIVE TO GBP, PERCENTAGE GROWTH

Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb85

90

95

100

105

110

115

Market & Economic Update

6 Market & Economic Update • March 2015

Page 7: Market Commentary - March 2015

COMMODITIES PERFORMANCE – 1st - 28th FEBRUARY 2015

-20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25

Coffee

Lead

Nickel

Sugar

Lean Hogs

Gold

Platinum

Silver

Zinc

Aluminum

Feeder Cattle

Kansas Wheat

Live Cattle

Natural Gas

Crude Oil

Wheat

Bloomberg Commodity Index

Corn

S&P GSCI

Soybeans

Copper

Cotton

Cocoa

Brent Crude

Unleaded Gasoline

Heating Oil

Gas OilIndex Total Return Level % Change

COMMODITIES

Unsurprisingly, the top performing individual commodity indices in the month were the S&P GSCI Gasoil, Heating Oil and Unleaded Gasoline, which returned 22.31%, 17.88% and 15.94% respectively. The S&P GSCI Brent Crude index returned 14.89%.

• After outperforming last month the S&P GSCI Precious Metals sector fell -5.02% in February, with Silver down -4.03%, Platinum -4.25% and Gold -5.17%. Some markets commentators have argued that this movement was a result of a temporary agreement being achieved between the European Central Bank and the Greek government.

• The worse performing S&P GSCI index in the month was Coffee, which was down -14.69% mainly as supply fears of Arabica beans receded due to continued rainfall in Brazil. Previously coffee prices had soared in 2014 as a result of drought conditions in Brazil and the resulting drop in output seen last year from the world’s largest producer and exporter. Additional downward pressures on the price of coffee are a result of other South American countries such as Colombia and also Mexico forecasting an increase in output for 2014/15, as a number of coffee producing countries have slowly started to recover from the disease called “La Roya” or “coffee rust”, which devastated many farmers in the region over the last six to seven years.

• Bucking the trend of recent months, the S&P GSCI Index had a positive month in February, returning 6.47% and outperforming the Bloomberg Commodity Index, which returned 2.58%. With a higher weighting to energy the S&P GSCI Index evidently benefitted from a stronger month for oil prices, which had a modest rebound as a result of a weaker US Dollar, a fall in the US rig count, an increase in oil storage, and a variety of oil majors announcing supply side cuts to spending on new and existing projects.

• The S&P GSCI Energy sector was easily the best performing commodity sub-sector index in February, returning 13.47%.

Commodity monthly performance, February 2015. Indices highlighted in yellow. Data in the above table in US Dollars. Source: FactSet

Market & Economic Update

7 Market & Economic Update • March 2015

Page 8: Market Commentary - March 2015

March 2015

Source: FactSetHFRX Global Hedge Fund GBP

Perfo

rman

ce (%

)

HEDGE FUND RETURNS, TOTAL RETURN

Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb94

95

96

97

98

99

100

101HEDGE FUNDS

• The performances of the HFRX indices were diverse in February, ranging from 2.08% to -2.14%. The headline index, the HFRX Global Hedge Fund GBP, was the best performing in the month returning 2.08%.

• The only sub-index to return a positive performance in February was the HFRX Equal Weighted Strategies GBP, which returned 1.72%. This index alongside the headline HFRX Global Hedge Fund GBP, were also far less volatile than the peer group in the month.

• The remaining sub-indices all lost value over the month. The worst performers were the HFRX Equity Market Neutral (-2.14%), HFRX Merger Arbitrage (-2.01%) and the HFRX Macro/CTA (-1.97%). All three experienced poor performance in the first half of February before a flat second half of the month.

Source: FactSet

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

Perfo

rman

ce (%

)

Capital growth

Income return

May 14 Jun 14 Jul 14 Aug 14 Sep 14 Oct 14 Nov 14 Dec 14 Jan 15

MONTHLY IPD RETURNS

Source: FactSet

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

Perfo

rman

ce (%

)

Capital growth

Income return

May 14 Jun 14 Jul 14 Aug 14 Sep 14 Oct 14 Nov 14 Dec 14 Jan 15

MONTHLY IPD RETURNS

• The top performing sub-index year to date was the HFRX Macro/CTA, which returned 3.6%.

• The worse performing sub-index year to date was the HFRX Distressed Restructuring, which returned 1.32%.

PROPERTY

• The IPD UK Property Monthly Total Return index increased by 0.83% in January, compared to 1.56% in the previous month.

• Income returns were down marginally in the month from 0.48% to 0.46%, whilst capital return growth slowed more significantly to 0.37% from 1.08% in December.

• The Office and Industrial sectors were once again the best performers in January even with lower returns than those experienced in December. Office performance increased by 1.1% and Industrial by 0.9% on a total return basis over the month. The retail sector total return figure fell marginally to 0.6% from 0.9% in December.

*Index data is released mid-month and therefore figures are only available with a one month lag.

Market & Economic Update

8 Market & Economic Update • March 2015

Page 9: Market Commentary - March 2015

9 Market & Economic Update • March 2015

March 2015

DATASHEET – LATEST MARKET RETURNS TO THE 28 FEBRUARY 2015 PERCENTAGE RETURNS FOR MAJOR ASSET CLASS INDICES.

Market 1m 3m 6m 2014-15 2013-14 2012-13 2011-12 2010-11 3 Year 5 Year

S&P 500 TR 2.8 3.7 14.0 25.3 13.6 19.4 7.0 14.7 69.8 108.6

FTSE All Share TR 3.7 4.7 4.1 5.6 13.3 14.1 1.5 17.0 36.4 62.1

FTSE 100 TR 3.3 3.9 3.1 5.6 11.0 12.4 1.6 15.5 31.8 54.7

FTSE Europe ex UK TR 3.0 2.3 6.0 5.2 15.4 18.6 -9.7 13.7 43.9 47.7

FTSE EuroTop 100 TR 3.2 1.8 4.0 5.2 12.7 14.9 -5.6 11.3 36.2 43.2

EURO STOXX 50 TR 3.8 1.4 4.7 4.3 19.0 13.2 -13.8 9.1 40.5 32.1

Topix TR 2.9 8.9 12.3 18.8 3.7 10.3 -7.3 10.1 35.9 38.8

MSCI AC Asia Pacific ex Japan TR 0.3 3.9 3.7 18.0 -10.1 15.2 3.0 13.3 22.2 42.7

MSCI Emerging Markets TR 0.2 0.3 -1.3 14.3 -14.6 5.9 2.0 13.5 3.4 19.7

Numis Smaller Companies (Ex-IT) TR 6.0 8.2 4.6 -1.8 32.2 23.3 3.9 29.1 60.0 114.6

BofA Merrill Lynch Global High Yield TR -0.5 0.5 3.6 7.2 -1.1 18.7 7.6 9.8 25.8 48.6

Markit iBoxx Sterling Corporates TR -2.6 3.7 6.1 12.0 4.4 11.3 8.7 7.1 30.1 51.5

BofA Merrill Lynch Sterling Corporate Bond TR -2.7 3.4 6.0 12.1 4.1 11.4 9.8 7.7 30.0 53.7

FTSE British Government All Stocks TR -4.2 2.0 5.9 11.7 -0.8 2.5 15.9 5.6 13.6 39.0

Euromoney Global Mining TR 6.6 1.0 -14.3 -9.5 -21.4 -13.9 -13.6 28.4 -38.8 -32.1

Bloomberg Commodity TR -0.3 -7.2 -12.2 -16.3 -11.1 -2.8 -9.2 16.4 -27.6 -23.6

S&P GSCI TR 3.5 -13.8 -28.1 -30.5 -7.8 -3.1 2.1 12.2 -37.9 -28.9

Gold Index -6.8 2.2 1.0 -1.4 -24.1 -5.6 27.7 19.2 -29.3 7.5

FTSE WMA Stock Market Balanced TR 1.5 3.4 5.8 10.5 7.7 11.5 4.1 12.3 32.6 55.0

FTSE WMA Stock Market Growth TR 2.2 3.6 5.9 10.6 8.7 12.7 2.2 13.5 35.4 57.0

FTSE WMA Stock Market Income TR 0.5 3.3 5.5 9.9 6.3 9.2 6.4 11.6 27.5 51.3

LIBOR GBP 3 Month 0.0 0.1 0.3 0.6 0.5 0.8 0.9 0.7 1.8 3.5

US Dollar -2.8 1.3 7.5 8.4 -9.4 5.2 1.8 -6.4 3.4 -1.5

Japanese Yen -4.5 0.6 -6.6 -7.4 -18.1 -7.7 3.1 1.5 -30.0 -26.8

Euro -3.4 -8.8 -8.5 -11.9 -4.3 2.8 -1.4 -5.3 -13.3 -19.0

1 Year ending 28 February. Source: Lipper (to 28 February 2015 in GBP. Currency movements are vs. sterling.)

Market & Economic Update

Page 10: Market Commentary - March 2015

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

The value of your investments, and the income derived from them, can go down as well as up, and you can get back less than you originally invested. Any indication of past performance or quoted yields should not be considered a reliable indicator of future returns. Before investing in funds, please check the specific risk factors on the key features document or refer to our risk warning notice, as some funds can be high-risk or complex, or can be susceptible to risks particular to the geographical area or industry sector in which they invest. Prevailing tax rates and relief are dependent on your individual circumstances and are subject to change.

Any research or analysis contained in this document has been undertaken by us for our own use and may be acted on in that connection. The contents of the document are based on sources of information believed to be reliable; however, save to the extent required by applicable law or regulations, no guarantee, warranty or representation is given as to its accuracy or completeness. The document may include forward-looking statements which are based on our current opinions, expectations and projections. It is provided to you only incidentally, and should not be considered a personal recommendation or advice to invest. Any opinions expressed are subject to change without notice.

210115-1041

Market & Economic Update

10 Market & Economic Update • March 2015

Bestinvest (Brokers) Limited (Reg. No. 2830297) and Bestinvest (Consultants) Limited(Reg. No. 1550116) are both registered in England and are authorised and regulated bythe Financial Conduct Authority. Registered office: 6 Chesterfield Gardens, Mayfair, London W1J 5BQ.