MAB-Quarterly-Review-Q2-2025-Adventurous - Flipbook - Page 6
Performance commentary
Market
The second quarter of 2025 provided investors with another timeless reminder of the bene昀椀ts of staying
invested for the long term and checking one’s portfolio valuation as infrequently as possible. The quarter
kicked off with a bout of volatility induced by US President Trump’s announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs in
the now infamous speech on the 2nd April. The magnitude of the tariffs sent global equity markets into a
tailspin, which bottomed on the 8th of that month. Markets staged a remarkable recovery from their nadir in
the latter part of the month. This included a historic surge in the S&P 500 on the 9th of April, which saw the
index of US stocks jump +9.5% in local currency terms, one of its top three days since 1940. This was a pristine
illustration of the necessity of staying invested for the long term and not panicking and selling at the bottom.
An investor who sold on the 8th would have missed one of the best market days in history.
Global equity markets continued to defy a regular cadence of negative headlines to post strong returns
across the board over the quarter. The 昀椀nal week of the month witnessed a new all-time high for global equity
markets as measured by the MSCI All Country World Index in local and US Dollar terms. For Pound-Sterling
based investors, the returns were good (up +5.2%), albeit still below the peak seen in February due to the
strong appreciation of GBP over that period.
The US Equity market staged quite a comeback over the second quarter, after underperforming in the 昀椀rst.
The local currency (US Dollar) return of the S&P 500 Index of large-cap US equities returned +10.9%; however,
a persistent weakening in the value of the US dollar vs the Pound Sterling translated this into a +4.5% return
for GBP investors. Previously rather unloved markets such as Continental Europe and Emerging Markets
outperformed the US in GBP terms over the second quarter, illustrating that there is a world of opportunity
out there for investors who are suf昀椀ciently diversi昀椀ed and long-term-oriented enough to capitalise on them.
Total fund
The Adventurous Fund (“the Fund”) returned +4.5% over the second quarter, outperforming the
+3.8% return of its IA Flexible Investment performance comparator. Since the Fund’s inception
on 6th October 2022, the Fund has generated a cumulative return of +28.5%, more than 7%
ahead of its IA sector comparator.
Equities
Our Tactical Asset Allocation positioning in equities was negative for the quarter, with the negative impact
from our underweight to the rallying European ex-UK equity market partially offset by the positive impact
from our overweight to the Japanese market and our modest overweight to the UK equity market.
Global equities were up strongly over the quarter, and this was consistent across all the global equity markets
in which you are invested. The Fund’s strategy of always maintaining broad diversi昀椀cation across different
regions and styles continued to prove helpful, given the outperformance of previously out-of-favour markets
such as Continental Europe and the Emerging Markets.
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