Money Management has looked at the performance of the equity sectors across the Australian Core Strategies universe as well as the market indices to see what investor’s should have avoided for the second quarter of 2018.
While February and March saw most equity sectors produce negative returns, Q2 looked to be a little less grim with some sectors holding steadfast against the wavering market.
The chart below shows the performance of the equity sectors across Q2.
April was a strong month for all equity sectors, with European equities topping the sector at returns of 4.0 per cent. The lowest performing sector was global equities at 1.1 per cent, with global small/mid cap equities not far behind at 1.9 per cent.
May displaced some of the better performing sectors, flipping European equities on its head to become one of four sectors with negative returns. It hit a low of -3.2 per cent while global equities also dropped to -3.3 per cent.
Asian equities also flipped down to negative returns in May, with both the Asia Pacific ex Japan sector and the Asia Pacific Single Country sector producing negative returns.
North America Equities rose in the middle of the quarter as did Australian small/mid cap equities, while Australian equities and emerging market equities fell.
June saw European equities pick up to just produce negative returns, while Asian equities fell harder into the negative.
Australian equities seem to be on the rise, topping the sector for June at 3.0 per cent, while North American fell to runner-up at 2.8 per cent returns.
All market indices sat above the line bar telecommunication services, which fell to -5.8 per cent in June and -10.1 per cent in May, and consumer staples and financials, which fell just below the line in May. The chart below shows the performance of the indices.
The S&P ASX 200 Energy sector was the best performing index at 7.9 per cent in June and 10.9 per cent in April.
Materials started off well for the quarter but dropped throughout the months, while consumer staples performed well in April and suffered a rocky May, but managed to pick back in June.
