Revealed: Investment fund winners from the vaccine bounce
By Rob Griffin
11:11, 9 November 2021
Global stock markets soared on 9 November 2020 when pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced that trials indicated its vaccine candidate had a 90% efficacy against Covid-19.
Hopes that a vaccine would soon be widely available and bring an end to the seemingly endless coronavirus lockdowns was enough to push the FTSE All-Share Index up 5% on the day.
But what has happened in the year since? A new report from London-based Chelsea Financial Services, seen by Capital.com, has analysed whether this value rally lasted – or whether growth strategies prevailed.
Vaccine bounce
The Pfizer-inspired global stock rally last November, which has been termed the ‘vaccine bounce’, was the first positive news after months of Covid-19 lockdown misery.
Dr Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s chair and CEO, declared it was a “great day for science and humanity” as he outlined the findings.
“The first set of results from our Phase 3 Covid-19 vaccine trial provides the initial evidence of our vaccine’s ability to prevent Covid-19,” he said in a company release.
Investors subsequently ploughed money into leisure firms that had been badly hit in the pandemic. According to the Chelsea report, the cruise giant Carnival, for example, saw its share price jump 35% at one point.
The performance since
The analysis by Chelsea Financial Services suggests the MSCI United Kingdom Value Index has returned 31.5%, versus the 23.2% achieved by the MSCI United Kingdom Growth Index.
It also revealed that the MSCI World Value Index had triumphed, up 31.4% against the 26.8% achieved by the MSCI World Growth Index.
According to Darius McDermott, Chelsea’s MD, value strategies haven’t done as well as first anticipated because of the continued uncertainties and subsequent lockdown.
“Over three, five and ten years they still lag behind their growth peers by a considerable margin,” he said.
High-flying value funds
However, McDermott also pointed out there had been some success stories with a number of “great stock-picking value funds” having done spectacularly well.
“The likes of JOHCM UK Equity Income, TM CRUX UK Special Situations, Schroder Recovery and Ninety One UK Special Situations have all returned between 52%-55% over the past 12 months, demonstrating that it is important to have style diversification in a portfolio,” he said.
McDermott also highlighted energy funds as having been one of the sectors to have benefitted most from the reopening trade, with Schroder ISF Global Energy being the stand-out performer.
“The pandemic is not over by any means, and I am cautious about the economic outlook for 2022,” he added. “However, further medical advances, such as Merck’s anti-viral pill announced last week, means we’re heading in the right direction.”
Top performing funds
- Schroder ISF Global Energy – 122.24%
- Invesco CoinShares Global Blockchain UCITS ETF – 83.08%
- SSGA SPDR MSCI World Energy UCITS ETF – 82.62%
- VT Cape Wrath Focus – 73.43%
- Aviva Inv UK Listed Equity High Alpha – 65.13%
- Slater Artorius – 60.51%
- Courtiers UK Equity Income – 59.90%
- ASI UK Unconstrained Equity – 59.62%
- Consistent Opportunities Unit Trust – 59.09%
- Allianz UK Listed Opportunities – 58.79%
- Denker Global Financial – 58.57%
- Thesis Stonehage Fleming Opportunities – 56.05%
- JOHCM UK Equity Income – 55.24%
- Aptus Global Financials – 54.94%
- TM CRUX UK Special Situations – 54.62%
- L&G Battery Value-Chain UCITS ETF – 53.34%
- Marlborough Global Innovation – 53.03%
- Artemis SmartGARP UK Equity – 52.65%
- Schroder Recovery – 52.60%
- Ninety One UK Special Situations – 52.41%
*Source: FE fundinfo, total returns in sterling, funds in the IA Global, Global Equity Income, UK All Companies and UK equity Income sectors, 6 November 2020 to 5 November 2021