3 sectors to watch
Beyond FAANGs, this technology field holds opportunity, as do selective parts of the energy and mining sectors, says State Street's Olivia Engel.
Olivia Engel: Yes, I think the technology sector is really polarizing the market right now. Because on one hand, you have some very strong new economy growth companies that are trading at enormous multiples. You probably know, if I say, there is a company out there trading on 250 times trailing earnings. If we look at the FAANG stocks, there is an enormous amount of positive expectation built into the prices.
The thing is, there are real earning behind that, not justifying the prices they have, but there are some real earnings. There's a secular growth theme there that the technology sector is exposed to that we really want to get. So, if you look beyond the FAANGs to some of the names that are much more in the components, in the hardware, some of them are little bit more boring actually. You can actually find some very reasonably-priced companies, that have real cash flow and consistent earnings growth in their profile. So, that's certainly a place we like.
We've been out of the energy sector for probably best part of two years and we're just starting to get back into it. So, there's been a good cash flow generation in many companies, and both in the Australian and in the global equity portfolios with broad energy exposure in there. The other benefit of having energy exposure is that there is an inflation-oriented protection that that exposure has, and it balances very well with some other cyclical and defensive exposures we have in the portfolio.
Especially, in the Australian equity portfolio, we've started to build up a position again in miners and materials. So, again, this is similar to the theme as to why energy sector has become attractive, but it's along the defensive nature of that asset class in the event that we get some inflationary pressure and it's very good at balancing off for some other exposures in the portfolio.
The relative risks of the mining sector have really dropped over the last 12 to 18 months and so that's another reason why we think they are a good place in the portfolio.