Empowered to be truly active

global

Analysing the 1,500 companies in the MSCI World Index may be a Herculean task but selectively picking stocks from such a broad universe gives managers the chance to be truly active and benefit from real diversification

In 2003, global equity markets finally broke free of the bear market that had gripped them for the previous three years. A number of factors conspired to fuel the rally in the markets, including the outcome of the Iraq conflict, mounting evidence of economic recovery and improving corporate earnings. Nevertheless, although the major markets all achieved positive returns for investors, there was a wide divergence among the individual indices, with the FTSE 100 delivering 13.6%, in sterling terms, versus a 35.5% return from the US Nasdaq index and 24.2% from the Japan Nikkei 225, both on th...