Infundly Perspectives

June’s Fund Discovery Briefing brings together Infundly’s latest fund research, market context and key UK industry developments for professional fund selectors. This edition highlights new research on Pzena Global Value, WS Raynar UK Smaller Companies and Troy’s multi-asset strategies, alongside the latest Macro Snapshot and developments in money-market fund reform, fund flows and IA sector definitions.

UK equity income should not be assessed by yield alone. The selector needs to establish whether the allocation is intended to produce dependable income, diversify expensive growth exposure or express a deliberate UK and value view. A familiar distribution can be useful. It can also conceal concentration, weak dividend resilience or poor capital progression.

Absolute-return and liquid-alternative funds are often bought for diversification, but the label is too broad to support conviction on its own. Some strategies may reduce dependence on equities, credit or duration. Others can deliver expensive, opaque or inconsistent outcomes that look useful in theory but disappoint in a portfolio.

May was a month of market resilience rather than macro comfort. The US-Iran conflict remained an important source of uncertainty, particularly for oil prices and inflation expectations, while central banks continued to face a difficult policy backdrop. Yet equity markets advanced, helped by the combination of AI-related optimism, resilient earnings and improving hopes that the immediate energy shock could fade.

Global equity fund selection has become harder in markets dominated by a small number of mega-cap, AI-linked companies. The challenge for allocators is not simply active versus passive, but whether each global equity fund has a clear role, credible differentiation and evidence that its active risk is worth the governance burden.

Strategic bond funds can be useful when rate paths, credit conditions and yield opportunities are uncertain. But flexibility is not automatically valuable. The allocator question is whether that flexibility improves portfolio resilience or creates a harder-to-monitor risk engine.

UK SDR labels provide a clearer starting point for sustainable fund assessment, but they are not a substitute for allocator judgement. A label frames the claimed sustainability objective. Selectors must still test the formal objective, portfolio alignment, evidence standard, KPIs, stewardship, risks, trade-offs and monitoring triggers, and connect these to the fund’s intended portfolio role.

Not every strong manager or compelling strategy belongs on the committee agenda. The gap between “interesting” and “committee-ready” is where many research efforts lose impact. For experienced portfolio allocators and investment committees, the difference is clear: a fund summary describes; a committee-ready note equips the group to challenge, contextualise and decide with traceable judgement.

A fund’s performance number only becomes useful when the comparator is understood. Benchmarks can sharpen fund review, but they can also mislead when they are mismatched, too broad, too narrow, style-insensitive or used without challenge. The professional question is not simply whether a fund has beaten its benchmark. It is whether the benchmark is the right yardstick, what the comparison proves, and what it leaves unanswered.

April’s macro story was one of uncomfortable contrast. On one hand, the Middle East conflict remained the dominant source of global uncertainty, with stalled U.S. - Iran talks, disrupted trade flows, and oil prices continuing to act as the key barometer for investor sentiment. On the other, equity markets staged a powerful rebound, led by U.S. technology stocks and renewed enthusiasm around artificial intelligence.

March 2026 Market Trends: Energy Shock, Market Stress and a Return to First Principles March was a geopolitical shock month, and markets priced it accordingly. The escalation involving the US, Israel and Iran pushed energy sharply higher, reset inflation expectations and quickly displaced the more stable backdrop that had prevailed only weeks earlier. The key issue was not simply the move in oil itself, but the extent to which it forced a repricing of the broader macro path:

February 2026 ended with a seismic geopolitical development that will shape markets well into the spring. Yet the month’s volatility was building well before this geopolitical flashpoint. Slowing US growth, sticky inflation, tariff policy uncertainty, and concerns over AI-driven capital expenditure had already unsettled markets.

January 2026: When the Dollar Blinked, Markets Rotated A weaker dollar reshaped global market leadership in January, lifting emerging markets, Asia, and commodities while leaving bonds largely unchanged. Our latest Macro Snapshot explores what drove the divergence and what it says about the early-year investment landscape.

As 2025 came to a close, it delivered an unusually constructive backdrop for investors, with economic data increasingly pointing to a soft landing, monetary policy turning decisively supportive, and markets embracing an environment where growth and liquidity aligned. Risk assets powered through persistent geopolitical uncertainty, ending the year on firm footing as investors stayed laser-focused on fundamentals amid the year-end rally.

November’s narrative blended political theatre, fiscal stability, and a subtle recalibration of global risk appetite, shifting from early-month optimism toward mid-to-late-month caution and volatility. The UK’s budget saga dominated domestic headlines, but markets were more focused on shifting expectations for interest-rate cuts, slowing wage growth, and a stubbornly weak productivity outlook. Meanwhile, the U.S. economy remained firm.

October extended the year’s upbeat tone, with global data pointing firmly toward a soft landing for the world economy. Inflation continued to ease, central banks trimmed rates, and investors embraced the idea that slower growth doesn’t have to mean recession. The result: another strong month across asset classes, with global equities rising, and the MSCI World Index hitting a fresh record high.

If you’re an investor trying to make sense of market noise, September offered a valuable reminder: policy signals move markets long before political headlines fade. The month showed how a single shift in monetary tone can reset global risk appetite — from Wall Street to emerging Asia — and why diversification is becoming strategic again, not just defensive.

Shifts in policy, trade drama, and what it all means for your money August is usually a quieter month in markets, with many traders and fund managers on summer break. Not this year. Policy signals from central bankers and fresh trade tensions kept investors firmly on their toes. The chart below provides a visual snapshot of what investment returns looked like for a selection of assets and regional interests for the month of August in sterling terms. Central banks: the balanc