Press Clippings 

April 2012

Because of the new fears on the sustainability of peripheral debts, and in particolar of Spain, many experts see an interesting alternative in high yield bonds. In the ranking of the 10 best European High Yield bond funds over the past 12 months (with data as of April 10th 2012), there is also an Eurizon Capital product: Eurizon EasyFund Bond High Yield R, which obtained a performance of 10,41% in the time horizon considered. 

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The newspaper analyzed the euro area equity funds that from 2009 to today have always beaten the EuroStoxx 600 index. Only 15 out of 197 analyzed products have been able to beat the market index in the years 2009, 2010, 2011 and in the first two months of 2012. Among these, also an Eurizon Capital fund: Eurizon StarsFund Euro Q-Equity I (here incorrectly called Eurizon Capital-I Euro Q-Equity).
Despite the difficulties of Eurozone economies, the fund obtained a return over the past 3 years and 2 months of 23,05%, beating the market also in 2011, which was the darkest year for the euro stock market. 

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In an analysis of the fund categories that have obtained the highest returns in the past year there are also the euro area government bond 3-5 years and the pharmaceutical-sanitary equity sector.
In both cases, in the ranking of the first 10 funds in terms of 1 year performances, there are some products of Eurizon Capital, respectively Eurizon EasyFund Bond Eur Medium Term LTE R Eur (+5%) and Eurizon EasyFund Equity Pharma LTE R Eur (+12,2%). 

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In the ranking of the funds’ top performances over the past 12 months there is also an Eurizon Capital product: Eurizon EasyFund Bond Emerging Markets R, among the best funds in its reference category.

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Among the best funds (considering the past 3 years) specialized on Piazza Affari there is also Eurizon Stars Fund Italian Equity Class I, which obtained a performance of 29% although 2011 was an extremely difficult year for the Italian equity market. Francesco De Astis, Head of Euro Equity and fund manager of Eurizon Stars Fund Italian Equity has been interviewed on the perspectives of the subfund.
De Astis thinks that a loosening of the sovereign debt crisis and the reawakening of risk proneness should be an advantage for Italian equities. He favors banks, since they benefit the most from the loosening of the tensions on the yield curve, and infrastructures, which in a recessionary context represent the best risk/return combination. He believes, moreover, that the likely fall in the perception of Italy’ riskiness will sustain especially small and medium cap export companies that are typical of the Italian setting. Finally, he sees in the industrial, luxury and energy sectors the biggest beneficiaries of a potential weakening of the euro.

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In the ranking of the  top 5 euro area equity funds, Eurizon StarsFund European Small Cap Equity comes in at number 2. The product soared by 79,6% in the last 3 years and it clearly beat the performance of the EuroStoxx index (+36,1%) over the same time horizon.

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Almost a year after the terrible earthquake that hit Japan there are signs of economic recovery in the country, particularly if one looks at the trend of the Japanese stock indeces. Both Topix and Nikkei soared by almost 25% in domestic currency since the beginning of the year. In the ranking of the 10 best Japan large cap equity funds, with data as of February 21st 2012, there is also an Eurizon Capital product: Eurizon EasyFund Equity Japan LTE Class RH, which gained 12,34% since the beginning of the year.

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The article sheds light on the sectors and the types of products that in this particular market context have obtained the best performances. Among these is the IT sector.
In the ranking of the first 10 sectorial funds that invest in IT on a global level there is also a product of Eurizon Capital: Eurizon EasyFund Equity High Tech LTE Class R, which achieved a performance of +1.04% during the past year. Investors’ expectations on the IT sector over the next months are positive.

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In the past 12 months the MSCI World index lost 0,8% while the MSCI World Healthcare gained 13,1%, thanks to the sector’s growth estimates and to the population aging, which will require more medicines in the future.  Among the best 24 equity funds specialized on pharmaceutical securities and on biotech there is also an Eurizon Capital product: Eurizon EasyFund Equity Pharma LTE. The fund obtained a performance of 15% over the past year, of 21,3% over the past two years and of 38,2% over the past 3 years. In all three cases it did better than the MSCI World Healthcare index.

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Despite the continuing Eurozone debt crisis some Eurizon Capital funds have performed extremely well since the beginning of 2011. In particular, out of 50 funds considered in this ranking, Eurizon EasyFund Bond GBP Class ZH has pulled off a top-ranking performance of 10,3%. The good performance of the fund can be significantly explained by the rising yields offered by British bonds.








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The month of August has been characterized by a poor trend of the main international financial markets. Some mutual funds, however, have pulled off anyway positive returns. Among these is Eurizon EasyFund Bond GBP. This fund has scored a performance of 3,55% in August, benefitting from the British pound’s revaluation against the euro. Fund managers Luigi Fallanca and Matteo Magnani explain that the positive return is certainly due to the currency effect, but it has also been boosted by “the movement of the British yield curve which has undercome a flattening in its long part (10-30 years), that is the segment where the majority of bonds issued by the treasury is concentrated”. “For the next months – they conclude – we expect the scenario won’t be subject to substantial variations. The UK economy could undergo a slowdown and generate a descent of the inflation to levels that are more consistent with the BoE’s policy. We therefore mean to keep the current positioning in order to take advantage of the expected increase of British government bonds, despite the low carry offered by these instruments”.

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