FY2019 will be associated with one word when market participants look back, and that is volatility. Bookended by relatively benign first and last quarters, the second and third quarters of FY19 took both domestic and international asset managers on a proverbial roller coaster ride.
Quarter two saw a large sell-off in the equity markets globally as markets fretted about rising global interest rates, trade wars, slowing Chinese growth and indeed slowing global growth. Then into the third quarter of FY19 (and the first quarter of the calendar year 2019) and equity markets came roaring back. Markets rebounded strongly on global interest rates now possibly falling, which would provide a fillip to global growth, trade tensions easing and a general air that things aren’t that bad really.
So while the indices on the face of it might suggest FY19 was a reasonably good year, this understates the significant market gymnastics that occurred in the space of 12 months and will certainly go down as one of the more difficult years asset managers have had to navigate in recent times.
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