THE FUND

The fund gained 6.6% Net (SEK) in February, compared to the benchmark index that increased 6.0% Net (SEK). Our overweight in Consumer Discretionary, Financials and underweight in Consumer Staples and Industrial contributed positively to the relative performance. Our off-benchmark bets such as Long Dien Group (LDG VN), Vincom Retail (VRE VN), VN Direct Securities (VND VN), and Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank (CTG VN) performed well adding to the outperformance of the fund. On the other hand, the increase of blue chips where the fund had a natural underweight such as Masan Group (MSN VN), Vingroup (VIC VN), Vinamilk (VNM VN) continued to be the key negative contributors to the relative performance this month. Stretched valuations in the blue chips universe is the primary reason why we chose to stay underweight in those names and tilted to the mid caps where valuations are more attractive such as Dat Xanh Group (DXG VN), Hoa Sen Group (HSG VN), PetroVietnam Transportation (PVT VN) among others. The fund started to gradually bring cash levels down now that the Lunar New Year effect is over. There was no inclusion or exclusion to the fund portfolio during the month.

THE MARKET

The Vietnam market experienced Lunar New Year (Tet) effect in February as investors tend to sell off prior to Tet to avoid risk and cost of funding in the long holidays and buy back when Tet is over. The big drop in the world equity markets during the first week of the month coincided with ‘sell before Tet’ behavior made things worse and put a strong pressure on the market. The Index lost almost 10% as a result but started to recover as prices became more attractive. Buying demands were strong after Tet and gradually drove the Index back to it usual uptrend, supported by robust economic prospects. FTSE Vietnam Net (SEK) ended February with 6.0% gain, outperforming both MSCI Emerging Market Net (SEK) and MSCI Frontier Markets xGCC Net TR (SEK), which increased 0.8% and 3.3% respectively. Foreign investors net bought USD 118m during the month, mainly from a substantial transaction in Vincom Retail (VRE VN). Liquidity maintained high at USD 348m in average daily trading value.