Fidelity Asian Values plc (LON:FAS) has announced its monthly summary for January 2024.
Portfolio Manager Commentary
The Trust’s NAV fell -1.5% during the 12-month period ended 31 January 2024, underperforming its reference index which rose by 7.5%. The Trust’s share price fell -2.5% over the same period.
Stock selection was the key contributor to the Trust’s relative performance. Our investment process leads us to take contrarian positions in undervalued businesses. We have been finding a lot of such opportunities in China, where heighted perception of risks has led to a sharp decline in stock prices. But despite attractive valuations China continues to underperform and drag down the Trust’s relative returns versus the index. On the other hand, an underweight in Taiwan and India also held back relative returns. From a sector perspective, selections within financials and utilities added value. The Trust is managed with an absolute return focus, 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.
Overall, the Trust was overweight consumer discretionary, financials, consumer staples and energy among others. At a country level, it was overweight China, Indonesia, and Hong Kong among others.
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.
