The market made further progress in February (MSCI Europe NR +1.9%, MSCI USA NR +5.3%). The resilience of global economic momentum is leading to upward revisions of GDP growth expectations, and this is proving to be a powerful support for cyclical assets, including equities. This is all the more buoyant given that it has taken many investors by surprise. At the same time, earnings releases also came as a positive surprise, with margins well above expectations. For the 4th quarter, earnings for S&P 500 companies were +7.2% above expectations, and +3.8% for STOXX Europe 600 stocks. All we can do now is hope that the resilience of the economy does not call into question the accommodative pivot of the central banks, which is still expected in 2024, albeit in a more nuanced way than at the start of the year.
The relative pressure on interest rates logically benefited our financial stocks (BPER, Wise, Unipol Gruppo) during the month, and penalised the real estate sector, well represented in the portfolios. Semiconductor and luxury goods stocks were also among the best contributors. Earnings announcements usually support our Momentum approach, and this month’s good publications from our holdings (Höegh Autoliners, Sulzer, Royal Vopak, GTT) made a positive contribution to our funds as a whole. Against this backdrop, the Digital Stars funds ended the month outperforming their indices. Digital Stars Europe Acc posted a monthly performance of +2.7% compared with +1.9% for the MSCI Europe NR. Digital Stars Continental Europe Acc ended February at +3.1% compared with +2.4% for the MSCI Europe ex UK NR. Digital Stars Eurozone Acc posted a monthly performance of +1.9% compared with +3.3% for the MSCI EMU NR. The fund benefited from the same trends in absolute terms, but was adversely affected in relative terms by the high concentration of the index on the month’s key drivers.
The portfolio reviews carried out in February were diversified, increasing our positions in the industry, healthcare and finance sectors. Among the exits were mainly consumer staples, materials and IT stocks.
Digital Stars Europe is overweight finance, industry and real estate. The fund is underweight healthcare and consumer staples.
The UK is still the fund’s top weight at 16.9%, ahead of Italy at 16.2% (largest overweight) and Germany at 9.8%.
Digital Stars Europe Smaller Companies Acc ended up +1.4% in February, vs. 0.0% for the MSCI Europe Small Cap NR. Earnings announcements have supported the fund over the month (BAM Groep, SAF-Holland, Fugro). The good performance of growth stocks, well represented in the portfolio, outweighed the poor performance of the real estate sector.
The monthly portfolio reviews have strengthened our positions in the healthcare and IT sectors. Sales occurred mainly in industry, consumer staples and energy.
The portfolio is now mainly overweight in materials and consumer staples, and underweight in finance and healthcare.
Sweden, largest country overweight, is now the biggest country weight in the portfolio and weighs 20.6%, ahead of the United Kingdom (the most largely underweight country) at 15.1% and Italy (2nd largest country overweight) at 13.3%.
Digital Stars US Equities Acc USD was up +6.2% in February, vs. +5.3% for the MSCI USA NR and -5.3% for the MSCI USA Small Cap NR. The US market performed fairly homogeneously this month. It was the behaviour of individual stocks that made the difference, thanks to positive announcements from some of our portfolio holdings, like e.l.f. Beauty or AppLovin.
The latest monthly portfolio review mainly increased the positions in consumer discretionary, consumer staples, as well as in finance, and reduced mainly those in IT and real estate sectors.
The portfolio is significantly overweight in industry, as well as in consumer discretionary and finance. The most underweight sectors are IT, media and pharmaceuticals.
