Chart of the week - 21 July 2025
In this week's Chart of the Week, Fund Manager Gary Moglione reveals a significant shift: after years of declining breadth, the percentage of stocks outperforming the MSCI World is finally rising. If this trend continues, 2025 could be remembered as the year active management made its comeback.
Underperformance of UK Investment Trusts vs. equities - Richard Parfect
Over the past three years, UK investment trusts have notably underperformed the FTSE 250 index (excluding investment trusts), largely due to the mis-application of expenses. Critics argue rising bond yields played a role; whilst they are not wrong, we contend a central issue is the way internal expenses were incorrectly presented as additional charges.
Not-so-magnificent banks - Lorenzo La Posta, CFA
In this week's Chart of the Week, Portfolio Manager Lorenzo La Posta highlights the past five years' total returns of Italy's UniCredit Bank versus the Magnificent 7 tech giants. Despite having nothing inherently "magnificent" about it, this Italian banking group has quietly and substantially outperformed them, proving that the best investments are often overlooked.
The Five Percent Club - Gabby Byron
In this week’s Chart of the Week, Gabby Byron explores NATO’s new 5% defence spending pledge and the sharp rally in European defence stocks so far this year. With governments signalling greater commitment to defence spending and geopolitics in focus, the question now is whether the momentum can continue or if optimism has already peaked.
Rising Conflict, Rising Prices: Could Oil breach $100 amid Middle East Turmoil? - Gregoire Sharma
In this week's chart Grégoire shows the recent spike in oil price (Brent crude) following the June 13 Israel attack on Iran and how oil prices tend to be driven by several important factors such as supply, demand, and market sentiment & speculation.
