Lubabalo Khenyane

We expected markets to remain jittery this year due to trade wars as many countries retaliate against US imposed tariffs. The reciprocal tariffs announcement by the US on ‘Liberation Day’ was, however, beyond our expectations. This caused a bloodbath in many asset classes.

The sell off in April somehow improved valuations for global equities. We took advantage of the sell off and increased exposure to global equities. As volatility remains heightened, we have kept some firepower in global cash and have exposure to global bonds as a hedge against more negative news headlines or a major slowdown in economic growth. In addition, yields on global fixed income are attractive at this point as many central banks have paused on their interest rate cutting cycles.

In the domestic market, we still have a lot of equities but have taken some profits to fund our increased exposure to global assets. We own less bonds in the domestic market.

Overall, we remain overweight growth assets and are overweight offshore assets.

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