News

President Trump returned to the Oval Office on Wednesday, less than a week after contracting Coronavirus. He has since described his illness as “a blessing from God”, saying “I learned by really going to the school and this is the real school and this isn’t the read the book school. And I get it and I understand it”. Markets wait with baited breath to discover what he might do with this newfound self-declared wisdom.

In a world where traditional asset classes aren’t offering particularly attractive prospective returns, many argue that investment in alternative assets – such as private equity, high-yield bonds, renewable energy and even cryptocurrencies – has become essential to ensure sufficient portfolio diversification.

Later this week, the international financial services group, Almalia, will launch the world’s first active global equity Shariah compliant ETF. The Almalia Sanlam Active Shariah Global Equity UCITS ETF (the ETF) will launch via the HANetf platform and will list on the London Stock Exchange later this week.

President Trump has made multiple headlines this week, firstly on Sunday after the New York Times reported that the president paid $750 of income tax in both 2016 and 2017. The first presidential debate ahead of the November US election then descended into childish bickering and finally, confirmation came last night that the President and First Lady have both tested positive for Coronavirus.

Equity prices have recovered from the lows in March – a remarkable comeback amid so much uncertainty. But high valuations mean less opportunity for future returns and more risk for investors, so where do we go from here?

This week has heralded a significant change in tone for markets. After months of outperformance by tech stocks such as Amazon, Apple and Microsoft, the
tides changed this week and many investors found themselves wrong-footed by the switch in sentiment. With Pfizer’s vaccine news providing a glimmer of
hope for a return to normality, cyclical stocks in industries such as travel, banking and hospitality staged a significant rally.

When the famous Russian author, Leo Tolstoy, wrote, ‘The two most powerful warriors are patience and time’, he could not have foreseen how perfectly it would sum
up today’s global predicament.

Investors are swamped with tips in newspapers, on television and online, but are media pundits worth their salt? The media has always fed off individuals’ insatiable appetite to take a punt on the stock market – offering ‘expert’ tips and forecasts in a bid to sell newspapers to investors or direct eyeballs to a television show or website. There is little doubt these forecasts are highly influential.

Almost every business around the world is affected by Covid-19 in one way or another. While some have been forced to completely close, others have welcomed a tsunami of new customers that had not even heard of their product a matter of weeks before the crisis hit

Head of multi-strategy at Sanlam Mike Pinggera speaks to Mike Sheen about how the firm’s multi-asset portfolios and Real Assets fund have held up during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and how our
working lives might change when the crisis subsides.