Carmignac Portfolio Global Bond

The Fund underperformed its performance indicator, mainly due to the general rise in interest rates over the period.

In fixed income, our positions in US and UK debt and our exposure to certain emerging market debt, such as that of Brazil, Mexico and Poland, had a negative impact.

On the credit side, our exposure to developed markets, particularly in the energy sector, and our investments in the external debt of emerging countries such as Argentina and the Dominican Republic, made a positive contribution.

Finally, in terms of currencies, although we benefited from our exposure to the US dollar, the fund was affected by our positions in the Brazilian real and the Norwegian krone.

Against this backdrop of a soft landing for the economies and inflation continuing its gradual decline, we are maintaining a relatively high level of modified duration.

In terms of interest rates, we favour real rates in the United States and yield-increasing strategies in the United States and Europe. We are also focusing on central banks that are lagging the cycle, such as the UK, and on certain emerging countries, such as Brazil and Mexico.

On credit, we are maintaining our positive bias, albeit cautiously, given the high valuations, and are maintaining a substantial level of hedging on Itraxx Xover to protect the portfolio from the risk of spreads widening.

On the external EM debt front, we continue to favour special situations in countries whose economies are undergoing restructuring or improving significantly.

Finally, we remain cautious on the currency front, with particularly low exposure to the USD and EM currencies. However, we do have diversified exposure to the currencies of central banks that are taking a less accommodative stance against a backdrop of monetary easing by the Fed and Chinese stimulus measures, such as the Norwegian krone, the Australian dollar, the Japanese yen and the Brazilian real.