Comments:
My portfolio rallied by an overall of +2.5% in the month of Dec-2020 to cap off the year 2020 at +19.9%. While the markets were slightly weighed down by the emergence of a new strain of COVID19 and US investigations into China big tech, the vaccine roll out and finalization of the US stimulus deal helped to pull the market up into the green.
United ASEAN led the charge at a MoM increase of +9.2%. This is WAY above the KLSE benchmark increase of +4.1% signaling good stock selection by the fund manager. This is followed by Principal Greater China at +4.9% versus its Hang Seng Index increase of only +3.4%. TA Global Tech also enjoyed a +4.3% gain but it is not as good as its XLK benchmark increase of +5.3%. United Global (+3.0%) also slightly underperformed the S&500 (+3.7%). The performances of my major funds have been quite mixed this month.
Although not as major as in Nov-2020, I am glad Manulife REIT continues its crawl up (+2.7%) in Dec-2020. I do believe this fund has the largest upside potential. Unlike all my other holdings, this fund still has not recovered from the March 2020 crash.
StashAway was the worst performing equity fund of Dec-2020 at only +1.7%. Although the true MoM increase in USD (investing currency) is about +4.5%, it seems that the weakening USD currency has taken its toll on this fund. It has dropped from RM4.08/USD to RM4.02/USD (about -1.5%) in just the month of Dec-2020.
My savings this month of only RM1,375 has not hit my target of RM2,000/month. Family birthday gift and celebration has taken a bite of it.
Forward Strategy:
I will continue to Value Cost Average (VCA) into my funds, keeping them at a fixed weightage as follows; United Global Equity (20.0%), StashAway (20.0%), TA Global Tech (20.0%), Principal Greater China (15.0%), United ASEAN (12.5%) and Manulife REITS (12.5%). I will be a bit more vigilant in monitoring funds that seem to continuously underperform the benchmark.