LHV World Equities Fund

In June, economies continued to open up and stock markets to recover from corona crisis. LHV World Equities Fund went up 4% over the month. Greatest contributors to this performance were single equity investments from Scandinavia as well as global gold miners stocks. As the restrictions put in place due to coronavirus have been relieved over the last few months, the economic activities in major countries has also rebounded. In China, the vehicle sales are back at pre-crisis levels, US retail sales showed sharp recovery and due to open borders, EU industrial output is back on the growth trajectory.   Currently, the economic activity is about 5% below pre-crisis levels in China and the US, while the same metric is 10% for Europe. We expect the economic activity to remain high but new coronavirus outbreaks may cause differences across countries.   The coronavirus is most contained in Europe with only a few local outbreaks, for example food factories in Germany, mines in Poland and Czech Republic, nightclubs in Croatia etc. In those cases, there is no need to close the economy completely.   On the other hand, in the US, the new infections number is making new records. States, which have been quick to open up, have suffered the most.  Also, new infections are going up in Emerging Markets, such as India and Brazil. The second wave in China has been limited with only a few outbreaks.   Fund investments are currently focused on European single stocks (especially Scandinavian listed equities). In Europe, the coronavirus is better contained and price levels generally lower compared to the US. We see that the Europe, with the lead of Germany and France, has very ambitious plans for green and infrastructure investments, to boost the economic activity. We prefer to invest in countries with higher savings rates and lower debt levels which gives more ability to boost the economy in current crisis.   Our largest positions equity positions are in Scandinavian industrial companies stocks where the demand has clearly improved in May and June (largest positions UPM, Stora Enso, Kone and Carlsberg). Also, we see a great upside potential in Scandinavian financial sector where stocks fell a lot due to the crisis (largest positions Swedbank and Sampo). In addition, we have added several positions related to general consumption and economy (largest positions Sweco, TCM Group, Coor).   In order to hedge risks, fund has invested in gold miners stocks (Barrick Gold, Agnico Eagle Mines, AngloGold). Due to exceptional policies, gold has risen over 17% this year which makes it one of the best performing financial instruments.