Growth

Turbulent markets make it timely to review three growth businesses that boast strong free cash flow and robust balance sheets for volatile times, writes Francyne Mu, portfolio manager at Franklin Equity Group.

The current economic cycle is too changeable to set any portfolio to autopilot, according to Mason Stevens’ Jacqueline Fernley. Counterpoints to conviction are needed, and the devil’s advocate should be your friend.

Value stocks have been big outperformers over the past three years, especially those in the cheapest part of the market, says Schroders’ Simon Adler. To avoid value traps, it’s key to do one’s research.

Large language models like ChatGPT are part of a long technology continuum driven by Moore’s law, the observation that transistor capacity doubles every two years. To get in on AI’s surging growth, says Munro Partners’ Nick Griffin, investors should focus on the big – and not-so-big – names already poised to come out on top in the “race to shrink”.

The clean-energy transition represents a huge opportunity for investors to earn good returns from investments that have a positive environmental impact – and ethical investors in Australia have particularly good cause for optimism, according to Australian Ethical.

Despite increased volatility emanating from the banking sector, tech stocks have been supported by falling bond yields on fears the global economy could slip into recession this year, with big-name companies leading the gains.

Shifting market dynamics mean some of the investment themes that worked in recent years are set to give way to new opportunities. Man Group’s Andrew Swan and Prime Value’s Richard Ivers recently discussed the promising outlook for Asia and small-cap stocks, where it’s all about fundamentals.

Following two years of volatility, triggered by a global pandemic, supply-chain disruptions and the release of massive stimulus that followed, the financial system is in uncharted territory.

The beginning of 2022 has marked a significant shift in the market paradigm, with the multi-decade tailwind of falling bond yields, which supported the valuation of ‘long duration’ assets like growth stocks, turning into a headwind. The impact has been far swifter than many expected.

Despite the widespread damage caused by Covid-19, the crisis accelerated the pace of technological advancements along with our ability to adapt to the latest changes. A survey by McKinsey & Co found that Covid-19 sped up the adoption of digital technologies by several years.

Last week’s effort by the Federal Reserve to curb inflation by raising US rates by another 75 basis points will likely see inflation decline in 2023 and will likely tip the economy into recession.

Among the most interesting comments I’ve heard thus far in 2022 was from an actively managed global fund manager who said something along the lines of “the challenge in 2022 won’t be in outperforming the index, but rather in generating a positive return.” This was evidenced by renowned value manager Platinum’s quarterly results, released last week.