Investors Voice Archive: 15 Mar, 2020

The new year has seen equity markets continue their seemingly unstoppable march higher. Given the substantial outperformance of ‘growth’ stocks over the past decade – and 2019 in particular – there is currently a robust debate around whether it’s time to switch to a more ‘value’ oriented portfolio.

Rallying markets have raised the valuations of many businesses, possibly to unsustainable levels. To my mind, it’s made one thing clearer than ever: investors need to bulk up on high quality Australian and global businesses, like CSL, Microsoft and Vivendi.

2019 was expected to be a challenging one for markets, however as the year drew to a close, Australian indexes were up 20 percent on low single digit EPS growth. Despite numerous concerns across sectors such as retail, housing, construction, finance, aged care, pharmacy and commercial services, global businesses in healthcare and technology powered ahead.

It won’t come as a surprise that over the last decade the average daily time spent on screens, which used to be restricted to television and computers, has increased significantly.

Easing geo-political tensions and signs of stabilising growth have seen international and domestic equity markets reach new highs in early 2020, while bond yields remain well above their cycle lows. Yet 2020 does not appear to hold an imminent end to the cycle.

“While conditions remain constructive for the Australian equity market it’s certainly not without risk.” While I’m positive on the overall Australian equity market, stock selection as always will be crucial.