Insight Investment

Joshua Kendall, head of responsible investment research and stewardship at Insight Investment…pointed to climate change transition bonds as an area of growth. Transition bonds are those issued by government and companies that fund activities that move towards alignment with Paris Agreement targets on containing global warming. "In order for these companies to move forward and align with investors needs on sustainability, these new sustainability-linked bonds can help to push them in a way which conventional bonds cannot," he said.

Asian corporate bonds have been one of the best performing debt, says Rodica Glavan, portfolio manager at Insight Investment. “It might have been a challenging start [to 2020], when Asia and China in particular were hit by the coronavirus… But as their economies recovered sooner than expected, the corporate bonds recovered as well.” Ms. Glavan views Asian high-yield bonds, particularly those issued by Chinese property companies, as promising.

Insight Investment has put the case for active asset allocation for investors over the market cycle, but especially now when both traditional defensive and growth assets are at troubling levels. In a webinar last week (February 25), Bruce Murphy, the Australia and New Zealand country head for Insight, said that there was a greater role for asset allocation, including using more “enhanced diversifiers” and alternative growth strategies in the current environment. He said that while there was an element of FOMA (fear of missing out) in the current share market cycle, there was also the need for caution.