Comments:
So the correction to my portfolio (-4.3%) finally took effect this month. The catalyst was the US Fed (seriously) signaling that they will implement several interest rate hikes in the coming months to counter rising inflations. Because of this, growth stocks, namely in the tech sector saw a major sell-off and thus dragging the S&P500 down (-5.3%).
In the same breath, I am quite disappointed to see the United Global (-7.7%) underperform the S&P500 (-5.3%). Maybe the fund was holding a bit too much tech stocks than the index. TA Global (-8.4%) also performed quite poorly and to rub salt to the wound, underperformed its benchmark XLK ETF (-6.8%).
Manulife APAC REITS (-6.1%) suffered as well due to expected rise in interest rates (think of them like bonds, interest rate goes up, REIT price will go down).
While the Hang Seng remained resilient (+1.7%) during this correction, the same unfortunately cannot be said about Principal Greater China which dipped quite significantly (-4.4%).
The 'superstar fund' award this month goes to StashAway which held steady at -0.1%. It is mainly attributed to the sharp rise in the XLE (Energy) ETF which again, is due to rising inflations.
My savings ended up in the red this month (-RM 8,955) due to final payment of house renovations. I am not too fussed about the -4.3% correction in my portfolio but more concerned about how most of my funds underperformed its benchmark this month.
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%).