Fund managers negative on RSPT

Australian fund managers believe the introduction of a resource super profits tax will have negative impacts on the mining sector, but that in most cases those negative impacts have already been priced into the share values of the mining companies.

The Russell Investments' quarterly Investment Manger Outlook research revealed that all the respondents to its survey believed the proposed new tax would have a negative impact, and that one in four believed it would have a severely negative impact.

However Russell Investments associate portfolio manager Scott Bennett said that despite this negativity, the majority of the managers surveyed believed the impact of the tax had been more than fully reflected in share prices.

Also worrying fund managers is the impact of the European debt crisis, which Russell said had continued to worsen and to impact on managers’ outlook for the Australian financial sector.

It said the number of managers bullish on financials fell from a record 64 per cent in March — the strongest level of support in the survey’s five-year history — to 36 per cent in the most recent quarter.

The Russell analysis said that the Reserve Banks decision to put interest rates on hold had offered some reprieve for the interest rate sensitive asset classes, such as real estate investment trusts and bonds.