JPMorgan Japanese

JPMorgan Japanese Investment Trust - Update from QuotedData

17^th January 2024

Are we there yet?

Optimism driven by rapidly developing corporate governance reforms, a divergent economy cycle, and still-negative interest rates saw a dramatic rally in benchmark Japanese indices over 2023, with the TOPIX index (the Tokyo Stock Price Index) climbing to its highest level in more than 30 years.

With the rally driven by more value-focused sectors of the market, returns for the JPMorgan Japanese Investment Trust (JFJ) failed to keep pace for much of the year due to a portfolio more targeted towards high-quality growth stocks (generally speaking, for JFJ, this means companies with strong franchises, balance sheets and cash-flow generation, which have the potential to compound earnings over the long term). While many of these companies have been out of favour, we do not see that as a significant negative for investors given the alignment of the portfolio towards a range of long-running themes. Promisingly, in December, we began to see a turning point in many of these sectors, with the JFJ portfolio up strongly.

Many of these companies continue to trade on increasingly attractive valuations, and the managers are right to sacrifice some short-term performance for the opportunity to achieve significant upside down the track.

Full Research:

https://quoteddata.com/research/jpmorgan-japanese-investment-trust-yet-qd/

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NB: Marten & Co was paid to produce this note on JPMorgan Japanese Investment Trust Plc and it is for information purposes only. It is not intended to encourage the reader to deal in the security or securities mentioned in this report. Please read the important information at the back of this note. QuotedData is a trading name of Marten & Co Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Marten & Co is not permitted to provide investment advice to individual investors categorised as Retail Clients under the rules of the Financial Conduct Authority.

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