September, 2023
Global equity markets were weak across the globe in September, with the MSCI World SMID Cap Index falling 4.6% in AUD terms. The Bell Global Emerging Companies Fund (Class A) fell 4.9%, modestly underperforming by 0.3% during the month. Returns have been strong over one year, with the Fund (Class A) up 13.6%, although lagging the MSCI World SMID Cap Index return of 14.3%, an underperformance of 0.7%.
File: https://commentary.quantreports.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/652ccd3887d36e6c66dfd3b3_BGEC-Class-A-Fund-Monthly-Report-September-2023.pdfAugust, 2023
Global equity markets were generally softer in August, although the weaker Australian dollar helped to offset this, contributing to a modest 0.3% return for the MSCI World SMID Cap Index in AUD terms. The Bell Global Emerging Companies Fund (Class A) increased 0.4% during the month, outperforming the MSCI World SMID Cap Index by 0.1%.
File: https://commentary.quantreports.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/6507b4319323df393e8ce2ea_BGEC-Class-A-Fund-Monthly-Report-August-2023.pdfJuly, 2023
The rally in global equity markets continued in July, as the MSCI World SMID Cap Index gained 3.3% in AUD terms. The Bell Global Emerging Companies Fund (Class A) appreciated by 0.3%, underperforming the MSCI World SMID Cap Index by 3.0%. While the relative performance lagged this month, the absolute returns of the Fund (Class A) have been 10.8% over the first seven months of 2023.
File: https://commentary.quantreports.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/64dc0c4ec6f09e585d21a7bf_BGEC-Class-A-Fund-Monthly-Report-July-2023.pdfJune, 2023
Global equity markets performed well during June with the MSCI World SMID Cap Index up 3.3% for the month and •3.8% for the quarter. The Bell Global Emerging Companies Fund (Class A) also posted a solid return in the June quarter (•2.6%), although underperformed the MSCI World SMID Cap Index marginally by 1.2%. Over longer time periods, the Fund (Class A) has outperformed the MSC1 World SMID Cap Index by 0.1% over one year and by 3.5% per annum over 5 years.
File: https://commentary.quantreports.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/64b71dbff3fdb32520840028_BGEC-Class-A-Fund-Monthly-Report-June-2023.pdfMay, 2023
The rally in global equity markets paused in May, as the MSCI World SMID Cap Index declined by 1.0% in AUD terms. The Bell Global Emerging Companies Fund (Class A) declined by 2.5% over the same time period. Despite the diƂcult month of relative performance, over the last 12 months, the Fund (Class A) has rallied 9.1%, outperforming the index by over 3.1%.
File: https://commentary.quantreports.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/648fd168d59fb602ccfc8af9_BGEC-Class-A-Fund-Monthly-Report-May-2023.pdfApril, 2023
Equity markets had another strong month with the MSCI World Small & Mid Cap Index rising 1.6% in April. The Bell Global Emerging Companies Fund (Class A) rose 2.2%. outperforming the MSCI World Small & Mid Cap Index by 0.6%. Over the last year, the rally has seen the MSCI World Small & Mid Cap Index rise 5.9% and the Fund (Class A) rallying 10.4%, an outperformance of 4.5%.
File: https://commentary.quantreports.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/6463009a50ab82f2d9701aa4_BGEC-Class-A-Fund-Monthly-Report-April-2023.pdfMarch, 2023
Global equity markets pushed higher again in March, with the MSCI World Index appreciating by 3.8% in Australian dollar terms, notwithstanding the recent banking crisis. The MSCI World SMID Cap Index declined by 1.1% in March. The Bell Global Emerging Companies Fund (Class A) delivered a positive return of 3.5%, outperforming by 4.6%. When looking over longer time periods the Fund has outperformed by 3.0% over 12 months and 3.9% annually over 5 years.
File: https://commentary.quantreports.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/6443b4e273e42e139ac8ff29_BGEC-Fund-Monthly-Report-March-2023.pdfFebruary, 2023
Equity markets rallied further from their October lows with the MSCI World Small & Mid Cap Index rising 2.0% in February. Despite the volatility over the last year or so, the MSCI World Small & Mid Cap Index is now in positive territory over the last 12 months having risen 0.4%. During the month, the Bell Global Emerging Companies Fund (Class A) rose 0.3%, underperforming the MSCI World Small & Mid Cap Index by 1.7%.
File: https://commentary.quantreports.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/64114633265a1b4b468d78bf_BGEC-Fund-Monthly-Report-February-2023.pdfJanuary, 2023
Equity markets continued to rally strongly from their October lows with the MSCI World Small & Mid Cap Index rising 4.7% in January. The momentum favoured the asset class which outperformed the all-cap MSCI World Index by around 1.6%. The Bell Global Emerging Companies Fund (Class A) rose 3.7%, underperforming the MSCI World SMID Cap Index by 1.0%.
File: https://commentary.quantreports.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/63ec63ecb3a02fbb1f1d90bc_BGEC-Class-A-Fund-Monthly-Report-January-2023.pdfDecember, 2022
Global equity markets gave back some recent gains in December as the MSCI World SMID Cap Index declined by 4.5% in AUD terms. The Bell Global Emerging Companies Fund (Class A) declined by 4.5% in December, thereby matching the broader market.
As the year has drawn to a close, we should also reflect on our returns for the full calendar year. The Bell Global Emerging Companies Fund (Class A) declined by 15.9% for 2022, which was weaker than the MSCI World SMID Cap Index return of -13.1%.
In a year when we saw extreme variations in ‘style’ returns it would remiss of us not to reference our relative returns against the popular ‘style’ benchmarks using MSCI Indices as an imperfect proxy as they are All Cap indices.
File: https://commentary.quantreports.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/63c5f564b50c40183ef21d90_BGEC-Fund-Monthly-Report-December-2022.pdfNovember, 2022
Equity markets rallied in November with the MSCI World SMID Cap Index rising 2.1% in AUD terms. The Bell Global Emerging Companies Fund (Class A) also performed strongly, rising 4.4 %, an outperformance of 2.3 %.
The strength seen in the equity markets in November was a continuation of the rally from the October lows. The focus continued to be inflation and the path of tightening by Central Banks which was reinforced early in the month with another round of steep hikes, but sentiment remained positive since expectations are that the pace of interest rate rises will ease as inflation begins to taper off.
File: https://commentary.quantreports.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/639bebef6bda8786069d9130_BGEC-Fund-Monthly-Report-November-2022.pdfOctober, 2022
Global equity markets had a very strong month in October with the MSCI World SMID Cap Index rallying +.1%. The Bell Global Emerging Companies Fund (Class A) posted a strong return of *.*%, however underperformed the MSCI World SMID Cap Index by 0.'% for the month.
October was a very strong month for global equities, with the US and European markets displaying broad based strength. HK"China was the notable underperformer as the COVID zero policy in China persists and geopolitical concerns remain elevated.
Despite the rally in October, market sentiment has been gyrating wildly from hope to fear and back again (often all in one day). It has been the type of market where even if you were privy to some of the key economic data ahead of time, it may not have helped you with predicting the subsequent equity market moves, such is the tug of war between the impact of perceived ‘good’ news or ‘bad’ news.
File: https://commentary.quantreports.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/63719000f003945b7a5eb67f_BGEC-Fund-Monthly-Report-October-2022.pdfSeptember, 2022
Equity markets suffered a steep fall in September, however the weaker Australian dollar buffeted some of the decline. The Bell Global Emerging Companies Fund (Class A) declined 4.4%, whilst the MSCI World SMID Cap Index also fell 4.3%, an underperformance of 0.1% for the month. September closed a very volatile quarter, with the MSCI World SMID Cap Index returning 0.7% versus the Fund -1.7%, an underperformance of 2.4%.
File: https://commentary.quantreports.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/6358f5d8b69c450c3428de8c_bgec-fund-monthly-report-september-2022.pdfFebruary, 2022
Global equity markets declined further in February with the MSCI World SMID Cap Index falling 3.2% in AUD terms. The Bell Global Emerging Companies Fund declined 5.5%, an underperformance of 2.3% for the month.
There were a number of factors that contributed to the portfolio lagging over the month, fortunately these resided toward the end of the month. From a sector perspective, allocation was a drag of over 40 bps, primarily due to a lack of exposure to Energy 4.3% underweight which was the best performing sector. The overweight to Information Technology 23.8% exposure, 10.4% overweight was also a drag as it was one of the poorer performing sectors. Regional allocation was also a negative driver costing around 40 bps.
The main drag was the overweight to Europe and the U.K(34.5% exposure, 13.9% overweight) . We remain comfortable with the current sector and regional allocations and maintaining virtually no cyclical exposure to energy or other commodity related industries. From a risk perspective, this is a key reason why the portfolio is far less volatile than the market.
File: https://commentary.quantreports.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/bgec-fund-monthly-report-february-2022-1.pdfJanuary, 2022
Global equities experienced a long overdue pullback in January as the MSCI World SMID Cap Index declined by 4.5% in AUD terms. The Bell Global Emerging Companies Fund declined by 5.5%, lagging the MSCI World SMID Cap Index by 1.0% for the month. Notwithstanding the soft start to 2022, the Fund rose by 24.2% over the last 12 months vs 16.9% for the MSCI World SMID Cap Index.
The performance divergence in equity markets was extreme to say the least. The realization that rising inflation and interest rate expectations will dictate equity returns has arguably wrongfooted many investors. As far as our relative performance is concerned, we would highlight a couple of factors that collectively contributed to the poor relative performance in January. ‘Quality’ as a style had a particularly difficult January as the MSCI World Quality Index lagged the broader market by 2.74%, as ‘Value’ had a renaissance of sorts outperforming by 4.05%. Within the broader SMID cap universe our decision to avoid the Small Cap Growth subset proved to be prescient as they collectively lagged the MSCI World SMID Cap Index by a much more meaningful 4.0%.
File: https://commentary.quantreports.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/bgec-fund-monthly-report-january-2022.pdfDecember, 2021
Global equity markets closed the year strongly with the MSCI World SMID Cap Index rallying a further 1.3% in AUD terms in December. The Bell Global Emerging Companies Fund rose 2.9%, outperforming the MSCI World SMID Cap Index by 1.6%. For the full year 2021, the MSCI World SMID Cap Index has risen a remarkable 23.9% with the Fund appreciating by 29.8%, a very strong outperformance of 5.9%.
The year has ended in a similar way that it began, with equity markets seeing a rotation towards value and a reversion to the mean as previously underperforming companies made up ground.
During the 12-month period, from a sector perspective allocation was a drag of almost 3%, but was more than offset by strong stock picking and a high batting average which drove positive stock selection of over 9%, currency was also a small tailwind of just over 1%. From a regional perspective, allocation was a slight overall positive, the only significant contribution came from the 10.4% underweight to Japan, a market that underperformed significantly, suffering a weakening currency and rallying only 1.5% over the year. The 7% overweight to Canada and 6% underweight to the U.S. were very minor drags. The contribution from the overweight to Europe and underweight to Asia ex-Japan were minimal.
File: https://commentary.quantreports.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/bgec-fund-monthly-report-december-2021.pdfasset_class:
asset_category:
peer_benchmark:
broad_market_index:
manager_contact_details: Array
ticker: BPF0029AU
release_schedule: Monthly
structure: Managed Fund
commentary_block: Array
factsheet_url:
https://www.bellasset.com.au/funds/bell-global-emerging-companies-fund
Go to Monthly Reporting
fund_features:
The objective of Bell Global Emerging Companies is to outperform MSCI World SMID Cap Index over rolling 3-year periods. The fund employs a long only investment strategy, with a fundamental bottom up approach that invests in a globally diversified portfolio of small and mid-capitalised companies. The Fund will invest in a diversified portfolio of small and mid capitalised (SMID) companies listed on global stock exchanges. The fund is unhedged and the unit prices are denominated in Australian Dollars.