Asia investment trust, Fidelity Asian Values PLC (LON:FAS) monthly factsheet for June 2023.
Portfolio Manager Commentary
The Trust’s NAV rose 8.0% during the 12-month period ended 30 June 2023, outperforming its reference index which rose by 4.4%. The Trust’s share price rose 20.7% over the same period.
Stock selection was the key contributor to the Trust’s relative performance, particularly in China, Indonesia and India. Meanwhile, being underweight in Taiwan held back the relative performance. Taiwan equities were supported by the strong performance of several stocks in the technology sector. From a sector perspective, selections within health care, financials and energy added value. The Trust is managed with an absolute return focus, completely agnostic of the index, with a bias towards high quality and value stocks.
Given this approach, stock selection was the key contributor to the Trust’s relative performance. Of late, investors seem to be rotating out of growth stocks and into value names in the Asian small cap space, which also aided performance. This trend should continue as small cap value stocks remain at a significant discount to small cap growth stocks in Asia. The manager continues to believe that owning good businesses, run by competent managements at attractive prices is the most time-tested way to make money in the stock market.
Overall, the Trust was most overweight in the consumer discretionary, financials, consumer staples and energy sectors. At a country level, the key overweight country positions were China, Australia and Indonesia.
