Comments:
My portfolio survived May 2021 and even saw an overall +0.8% gains despite suffering from a massive sell-off in the middle of the month due to growing inflation fears. The Fed was quick to calm down inflation fears and the global market recovered accordingly. As a result, the S&P500 ended up +0.5% in the month. The Hang Seng was the main driver this month as the index ended up +1.5% mainly due to optimism on recovery from the pandemic. The KLCI however, struggled to keep up as ended down -1.1% due to the nation's struggle with the third wave of the pandemic.
Principal Greater China (+3.2%) did very well versus the Hang Seng (+1.5%) which I believe is mainly due to the overperformance of the recovery stocks in the fund (industrial & manufacturing). Big tech definitely did not help much as they mostly ended flat versus the start of the month. Also following suit is heavily China/HK weighted StashAway (+1.1%). Sure the SPEM, AAXJ, IJR helped to buoy the fund but the main driver was actually the GLD (+7%)! Materials have been making a big comeback this month, however, it does not show much in portfolio because I barely hold any.
My Company Stock (Industrials in Europe) continued its surge and ended at +1.9% this month. It fits the narrative that investors are continuously flocking to Industrial stocks. On top of that, the company also gave a ~2% dividend this month.
United Global (+0.2%) expectedly continues to disappoint vs the S&P500 index (+0.5%) as the fund holds quite a bit of big tech stocks which underperformed this month. TA Global Tech was a testament to that fact as it ended -0.9% for the month. Note that XLK also fell -1.4% this month.
United ASEAN expectedly fell -0.2% in line with the underperformance of the KLCI (-1.1%) and the ASEAN markets due to the resurgence of COVID cases in the region.
Savings was up this month (RM2529) mainly due to the resurgence of COVID. We went out a lot less and we also had to suspend my child's trip to daycare.
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%).