Monthly Investment Report July 2021
RUFFER INVESTMENT COMPANY LIMITED
(a closed-ended investment company incorporated in Guernsey with registration number 41996)
LEI 21380068AHZKY7MKNO47
Attached is a link to the Monthly Investment Report for July 2021.
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/7782H_1-2021-8-5.pdf
During July, the Company's net asset value (NAV) fell by 0.5% although the share price rose by 0.3%. This compared with a rise of 0.5% in the FTSE All-Share total return index.
Bond yields fell throughout July as investors shrugged-off yet another blowout US inflation print: June CPI came in at 5.4%, well above expectations once again. Real (inflation-adjusted) yields moved further into negative territory, boosting the Company's inflation-protected bonds and adding 1.6% to performance. Together with a pause in US dollar appreciation, deeper negative real yields gave a lift to gold. By contrast, falling yields proved a headwind for our swaption book, which is held to protect against the opposite scenario. This interest rate protection detracted from performance (-0.9%). However, it remains an important part of the investment mix, which we think will be needed later this year and we have been topping up this position.
Investors cannot seem to agree on the reasons for the bond rally. Technical factors contributed (quantitative easing buying exceeding new issuance), as did anxiety over the slowing speed of economic recovery and the spread of the Delta variant of covid-19. There is also a growing perception that monetary and fiscal policy will tighten from here. As a result, July saw investors fretting about 'peak everything'. Equity investors tilted away from so-called 'reflation' trades - assets which do better in periods of faster economic expansion. Our equities - predominantly economically-sensitive value and cyclical stocks - were held back as a result, costing the company 0.6%. A challenge to the reflation narrative was always likely in the second half of this year. The blistering rates of growth seen in the recovery from the sharpest post-war recession were bound to slow, whilst further waves of covid-19 and uneven global vaccination progress threaten both confidence and re-opening. However, despite the angst and a mid-month sell-off, global equities ended July just shy of yet another all-time high. Perhaps 'bad news is good news' again on the basis it keeps the punchbowl of central bank liquidity at the party for longer.
We expect a further leg of the 'reflation' trade and have added to our cyclical equities. Although the US Federal Reserve is now talking about tapering, central banks remain extremely accommodative. The European Central Bank has re-committed itself to stimulus as far as the eye can see. Even the more orthodox Chinese central bank signalled an end to tightening. At the same time, corporate earnings season has seen significant positive surprises which should support a strong capex cycle. Crucially, the UK's re-opening experience suggests vaccines decisively degrade the link between infections, hospitalisations and deaths, putting economic normality within reach of vaccinated states.
But risks to markets remain elevated, notably from China. On top of fresh covid-19 outbreaks and perennial debt issues, Beijing offered foreign investors re-education in political risk this month as the ongoing regulatory crackdown moved from tech to tuition stocks before rattling Chinese stocks more broadly. Under-priced political risk is one reason we have historically avoided large allocations to Chinese equities. This will not be the last barrage in the burgeoning capital markets war, nor the last nasty surprise for financial markets, out of the Middle Kingdom.
Enquiries:
Praxis Fund Services Limited
Gail Adams
DDI: +44(0)1481 755584
Email: ric@praxisifm.com
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