What’s Hot? Japan Hot, Property Not [Sector Edition]

What’s Hot

• Technology and Japan have had strong months.
• Japan is notable as it found itself fighting in the bottom spots in April…
• …the Japanese market seemed to catch the imagination, and much positive comment, as the G7 met in Tokyo.
• The technology sector, where funds are driven by the small number of giant tech stocks, had a good month driven by the enthusiasm around AI, even if the long-term AI winners will likely be found in specialist AI funds, which tend not to be invested into the tech giants, but for Nvidia.
• The North America and Global sectors have also been driven by a small number of big tech stocks.

What’s Not

• The worst sector by far this month is UK Index Linked Gilts, down a further 5% from April, and a way ahead of the other laggards.
• Property, one of the hot sectors from April, finds itself back amongst the duds. Remember that this sector remains in a downtrend since its peak at the end of 2021.
• China had a poor month, though not terrible.  Sentiment is very negative on China at the moment.  For contrarians, this is positive.

What’s Hot

What’s Not