Summer Australian Equities
Summer Australian Equities fund performance summary as at 30 November 2024.
Fund at a glance
Unit price (as at 30 November 2024): $2.0610
Date the fund started: 19 September 2016
For information on fees, see our Fees page.
For more information on the Summer Australian Equities fund, read the latest quarterly fund update and the product disclosure statement.
Fund objective and strategy
See the Australian Equities page for the Summary of investment objective and strategy.
Fund returns
| PIR | Total since inception (annualised) | 1 Month | 3 Month | 1 Year | 3 Years^ |
| 28% | 8.29% | 3.04% | 4.50% | 22.56% | 10.05% |
| 17.50% | 8.67% | 3.08% | 4.57% | 22.93% | 10.45% |
| 10.50% | 8.93% | 3.10% | 4.61% | 23.18% | 10.72% |
^ Annualised
Fund returns are calculated net of fund charges, trading expenses and accrued tax for a New Zealand resident individual paying tax at the Prescribed Investor Rate identified above.
Top 10 investments
The top 10 investments make up 42.58% of the fund.
Manager's Commentary
What happened in the markets that you invest in?
The Australian equity market rose 3.79% in November, led by the IT and Utilities sectors. Domestic economic data included the October CPI indicator and third-quarter wages data. Both came in a touch below market expectations which suggests underlying inflation pressure is easing, albeit at a very gradual pace. Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) minutes for their recent meeting suggest they will need to see more than one good quarterly inflation print to justify cutting rates. That, combined with a persistently tight labour market, has seen most economists push out expectations for any rate cuts from February 2025 to May 2025.
November reporting season was balanced in Australia with some softness across consumer staples offset by a resilient set of results in the banking sector. Any negative downstream impacts on Chinese economic activity from an evolving US trade policy pose a risk to Australian commodity exports and prices, particularly iron ore miners which represent some of the largest companies on the ASX.
How did your portfolio perform?
Summer Australian Equities delivered a return net of fees and before tax of 3.13% during November.
For the 12 months to the end of November, Summer Australian Equities delivered a return net of fees and before tax of 23.56%.
Positive contributors to performance were our overweight positions in industrials Seven Group (SGH)and Emeco Holdings (EHL). SGH has a diverse portfolio of businesses across building materials, equipment hire, energy and the Caterpillar Australia franchise, Westrac. The business has gone from strength to strength with effective capital allocation and operating efficiency seeing multiple years of double-digit earnings growth supporting the share price. EHL performed well as new management exited some of their higher-risk businesses and this flowed through to stronger earnings growth in the latest result.
Detracting from performance were our underweight positions in Commonwealth Bank and Pro Medicus (PME). The ‘Trump trade’ drove the US banking sector higher on the prospect of deregulation and lower taxes, and despite limited exposure, Australian banks also gained. PME continued a strong run of performance with the announcement of a significant contract win which is expected to add ~$20m per annum of earnings for the next decade.
We actively manage the fund’s foreign currency exposures. As of 30 November 2024, these exposures represented around 97% of the value of the fund. After allowing for foreign currency hedges in place, approximately 53% of the value of the fund was unhedged and exposed to foreign currency risk.
What are we thinking about the future?
We remain underweight the Real Estate sector with fewer rate cuts now expected and the timing being pushed out. In terms of overweight positions, we have added to our holdings across the Energy sector on recent weakness and continue to favour a selection of high-quality industrials which we expect can continue to grow earnings ahead of the broader market yet have more reasonable valuations than other strongly growing stocks.
This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any financial product and does not take your personal circumstances into account. All opinions reflect our judgement on the date of communication and may change without notice. Past performance is not a reliable guide to future performance. We recommend you take financial advice before making investment decisions. We have prepared this web page in good faith based on information obtained from other sources, but we do not guarantee the accuracy of that information. We do not make any representation or warranty (express or implied) that this web page is accurate, complete, or current and to the maximum extent permitted by law disclaim any liability for loss which may be incurred by any person relying on this web page.
