Summer Australian Equities
Summer Australian Equities fund performance summary as at 30 April 2025.
Fund at a glance
Unit price (as at 30 April 2025): $1.9507
Date the fund started: 19 September 2016
For information on fees, see our Fees page.
For more information on the Summer Australian Equities fund, read the latest quarterly fund update and the product disclosure statement.
Fund objective and strategy
See the Australian Equities page for the Summary of investment objective and strategy.
Fund returns
| PIR | Total since inception (annualised) | 1 Month | 3 Month | 1 Year | 3 Years^ |
| 28% | 7.12% | 0.88% | -6.73% | 2.54% | 4.78% |
| 17.50% | 7.51% | 0.97% | -6.53% | 2.99% | 5.24% |
| 10.50% | 7.77% | 1.03% | -6.39% | 3.28% | 5.55% |
^ Annualised
Fund returns are calculated net of fund charges, trading expenses and accrued tax for a New Zealand resident individual paying tax at the Prescribed Investor Rate identified above.
Top 10 investments
The top 10 investments make up 42.73% of the fund.
Manager's Commentary
How did your portfolio perform?
Summer Australian Equities (the fund) delivered a return net of fees and before tax of 1.12% during April. For the 12 months to the end of April the fund delivered a return net of fees and before tax of 3.73%. Key positive contributors to performance were our underweight position in Woodside Energy and for the second month in a row our overweight position in investment manager, Challenger.
Key positive contributors to performance in April were our underweight position in Woodside Energy and for the second month in a row our overweight position in Investment manager Challenger.
Challenger shares performed strongly in April after Japanese Life insurer Tal Dai-ichi acquired MS&AD Holdings’ 15.1% stake in Challenger at a significant premium (~58%) to the last close. Woodside shares declined in April as OPEC+ signalled further increases in output, with energy prices falling. Weaker prices have flowed through to EPS expectations with Woodside suffering negative earnings revisions.
Key detractors from performance in April were our underweight position in Commonwealth Bank (CBA) and our overweight in diversified miner, South32.
CBA rose after a ‘flight to safety’ caused by the liberation day turmoil. Investors favour CBA’s high quality and dominant franchise, with minimal direct economic and tariff exposure outside of Australia, with an overweight to lower risk mortgage lending.
South32 underperformed as liberation day chaos reverberated through commodity markets. Prices fell for many of the commodities produced by South32 (including nickel, copper, and aluminium) as expectations for global GDP growth were revised lower.
Being significantly underweight in banks has contributed to approximately half of the portfolio’s underperformance for the past 12 months. Australian banks, particularly Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), are among the most expensive globally—CBA currently trades at 4 times book value and 27 times future earnings, despite only delivering low single-digit earnings growth. CBA represents 11.5% of the ASX index, and although your fund holds a substantial position at 7%, this still constitutes a meaningful underweight. This underweight has negatively impacted relative performance.
We believe that many investors see banks—especially CBA—as a safe haven. However, this view overlooks the secondary impacts of slowing global economic growth, particularly stemming from the US-led trade war. It also ignores the reality that banks are fundamentally cyclical businesses.
We actively manage the fund’s foreign currency exposures associated with Australian equities. During the month the NZD fell 2.05% against the Australian dollar (AUD).
What happened in the markets that you invest in?
The Australian equity market rose 3.62% in April, led by the Communication Services and Technology sectors. Employment grew by 32,000 jobs in March, with the unemployment rate broadly flat at 4.1%. The monthly CPI indicator for March remained steady at 2.4% for the year, well inside the RBA’s target range.
What are we thinking about the future?
The big news in April was US President Trump’s liberation day tariffs. To date, the tariff rollout has had a limited impact on Australian companies with the local economy still ticking along nicely. Several firms, particularly those exposed to the business CAPEX cycle, those with China-centric or highly globalised supply chains, and a large share of US sales, at greatest risk.
We favour domestically focused exposures and incorporate a defensive bent to the portfolio. There are some attractive valuations in the healthcare sector, and we expect it will benefit from labour policy promising increased government funding in the space.
This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any financial product and does not take your personal circumstances into account. All opinions reflect our judgement on the date of communication and may change without notice. Past performance is not a reliable guide to future performance. We recommend you take financial advice before making investment decisions. We have prepared this web page in good faith based on information obtained from other sources, but we do not guarantee the accuracy of that information. We do not make any representation or warranty (express or implied) that this web page is accurate, complete, or current and to the maximum extent permitted by law disclaim any liability for loss which may be incurred by any person relying on this web page.
