Fidelity Asian Values plc (LON:FAS) has announced its monthly summary for December 2024.
Portfolio Manager Commentary
The Trust’s NAV rose 5.5% during the 12-month period ended 31 December 2024, underperforming its reference index which rose by 8.6%. The Trust’s share price advanced 0.9% over the same period.
Stock selection was the key contributor to the Trust’s relative performance. Our process is driven by owning good businesses run by management we trust and owning them only when we have ample margin of safety – this often leads us to take contrarian positions, as it is easier to find undervalued businesses in countries which are out of favour with investors. Following this philosophy, we have a significant percentage of our portfolio in Indonesia compared to the index, but here small caps saw a sharp fall in share prices. Conversely, Taiwan, where our portfolio has a large underweight, rose strongly and outperformed the index which led to the Trust’s underperformance. From a sector perspective, selections within information technology and materials added value.
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. This trend should continue as small cap value stocks remain at a significant discount to small cap growth stocks in Asia.
Overall, the Trust was overweight consumer discretionary, financials, consumer staples and energy. At a country level, it was overweight China, Indonesia, and Australia.
Fidelity Asian Values Plc (LON:FAS) provides shareholders with a differentiated equity exposure to Asian Markets. Asia is the world’s fastest-growing economic region and the trust looks to capitalise on this by finding good businesses, run by good people and buying them at a good price.
