Thematic Funds Added to the FE Invest Approved List for the First Time

LONDON, 10 DECEMBER 2018: The FE Invest Approved List has been expanded with the addition of 12 thematic funds covering seven sectors; financials, energy, commodities, consumer, technology, infrastructure and healthcare.

The 12 thematic funds have been added to further diversify FE Invest’s Approved List of funds by providing exposure to macroeconomic trends.

Rob Gleeson, FE head of research, said: “Rather than covering a particular asset class, style or strategy, thematic funds focus on a sector or theme. This means that they often behave differently to general asset classes, so incorporated in a broader portfolio can offer additional diversification benefits.”

“We believe that predicting the future is futile and that preparing portfolios for, and protecting them against, all scenarios is best practice. The funds picked are those we believe to be the best within each sector and, importantly are not highly correlated to other funds on the FE Approved Invest List – maximising the diversification potential.”

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Commenting on two of the funds added to the FE Invest Approved List, Sophie Meatyard, fund analyst at FE Invest comments: “Jupiter Financial Innovation aims to benefit from the digital transformation of the financial services sector. The fund has a strong track record of investing in financials and the manager has proven his ability to pick winners versus his peers.

“Fidelity Global Consumer Industries, invests across the consumer staples and consumer discretionary industries on a global basis. Manager Aneta Wynimko has established a strong track record of stock picking and her ability to position the portfolio across the defensive staples, and sensitive discretionary sectors to benefit from different market conditions is impressive.”

Methodology for selecting thematic funds mirrors that of the broader FE Invest Approved List – quantitative financial assessment based on the FE Crown and FE Alpha Manager Ratings with a qualitative overlay of manager meetings and research. The performance of thematic funds is highly correlated to how the sectors they are most invested in perform, so additional weight is given to the qualitative overlay to avoid punishing funds for their sector’s performance.

-ENDS-

Notes to editors

For additional fund analyst comments about other thematic funds added to the FE Invest Approved List, please contact the FE press office.

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