Monthly Recap
For the past year, market sentiment has been dominated largely by the debt crisis that continues to boil over in Europe, causing fear and panic among investors. In the first quarter of 2012, this situation was merely simmering, allowing investors to focus on the economic recovery that appears to be well underway in North America.
Sentiment was buoyed by encouraging data in the U.S. showing that the housing market is rebounding, job growth has been encouraging for six months, and consumer confidence remains positive. In Europe, while the economy is showing signs of slowdown, markets rallied strongly on news that the European Central Bank had injected funds into many banks in an effort to help spur economic growth.
Monthly Fund Ranking Report
Each month, we analyze more than 1200 mutual funds, pooled funds, and hedge funds putting them through our proprietary quantitative valuation model. We then prepare our Monthly Fund Ranking Report which rates and ranks each of the funds in our universe.
You can download our March 31, 2012 Investment Fund Ranking Report here.
Monthly Socially Responsible Investing Report
With environmental and human rights concerns becoming more important to people, interest in the Socially Responsible Investing segment has never been stronger. In an effort to help keep investors and advisors informed on the SRI funds available, we have created our monthly Socially Responsible Investing Fund Report, which will be published on a monthly basis.
You can download the March 31, 2012 Socially Responsible Investing Report here.
Monthly WRAP Report
Fund of Fund or WRAP funds have consistently led the mutual funds sales stats in the past few years. Investor and advisor interest in the products are at an all time high, given the unprecedented levels of market volatility and uncertainty that is prevalent in the markets today. To help you zero in on the best WRAP funds available, we have created our new Monthly WRAP Funds Report that will be published on a monthly basis. If there is a WRAP fund that you would like to see added to this report, please contact us and we will add it for our next edition.
You can download the March 31, 2012 WRAP Fund Report here.
Monthly Portfolio Review
March was another good month for our portfolios, with all five finishing in positive territory, and four out of the five outpacing their benchmarks. The only laggard was our Growth Portfolio which slightly underperformed its benchmark. Our Balanced Growth Portfolio posted a 1.3% gain during the month, outpacing its benchmark by 31 basis points.
The biggest contributor to our outperformance was the CI Harbour Fund, which posted a modest gain of 0.1% during the month, but outpaced the S&P/TSX Composite by 1.7%. The Renaissance Global Healthcare Fund was also a strong contributor to the monthly performance, gaining 4.1% in March. The CI American Value Fund gained nearly 3% in the month, but was well below the 4.2% gain posted by the S&P 500 in Canadian dollar terms. The TD Real Return Bond also underperformed the broader Canadian bond market during the month, impacting our relative performance.