Halfway through the month and following more new AHT’s, we have now started to see a move lower across the board, with volumes remaining subdued. Delta concerns, lockdowns in Australia and New Zealand clearly on people’s minds along with tapering fears. There has been a flurry of activity by hedge funds selling Auto’s but their […]

Half way through the year, scary as that sounds, means earnings season is just around the corner. Bit more activity in the market last month has meant we’ve seen Hedge Funds buying the Oil & Gas Producers and the continued buying in Engineering & Construction names. On the Institutional side, we have seen large shift into buying Packaged Food and Biotech/Pharma names.

We’re now through May, and finally it’s starting to warm up leading into the summer! More of a subdued feel in the markets this month. Flow wise, we’ve seen a continuation of Hedge Funds buying the Industrial Services names, while interest in buying Autos has dried up. On the Institutional side, we have seen increased buying of Banks to pair off the sell skew from April.

We’re already halfway through May, but given the weather it wouldn’t surprise me if I was writing February! The markets have been equally as unpredictable with some wild intraday swings to keep everyone on their toes. Flow wise this month we’ve seen a significant uptick in Hedge Funds buying the Industrial Services names, while interest in buying Autos has dried up. In the Institutional realm, the big trend has been the shift from selling banks in April to buying in May.  

April was an interesting month for flows with Autos and Banks catching the eye thematic wise. Hedge Funds saw significant buying interest in Autos on the back of the VOW/VOW3 spread widening and generally positive results. This came at the expense of Tech, which suffered on the back of a mixed earnings and toppy valuations. Turning to Institutions, the flow was mainly focussed on Apparel names being bought and profit being taken in the Banks.

I must say it is odd to think we are already halfway through September. With the end of Q3 coming into view, this month has thrown up some interesting changes to our clients’ focus. For one, the consistently busy Capital Goods sector of the past few months has seen much less activity. Most of this activity has resurfaced amongst the Consumer Discretionary and Financial names.

The seasonally quiet month of August did manage to throw up some interesting moves amongst Hedge Funds and Institutions. Here at Redburn we saw a significant increase in two-way flow around the Housebuilder/Building Materials names, to the extent that it outstripped Capital Goods flow, which has been consistently the largest of late. Hedge Fund selling of Utilities has cooled, while Banks failed to maintain their July momentum, with falling interest across the board.

Two weeks into the new month and half, there is one theme that is materialising, which is particularly exciting. We are seeing buying interest in Banks beginning to build momentum. We have seen a marked increase for both Hedge Funds and Institutions, and this has coincided with the recovery in the SX7e relative to the SXXP . Is this the inflection point that we have been waiting for? Well, we still have a long way to go, but I do think that overall the fact that Banks have made up the largest portion of our flow so far this month is something to note.  

Halfway through the month of June and the risk on Consumer Discretionary trade is clearly reflected in the flow that we have seen. With countries continuing to unravel their lockdown measures, and shoppers back out pounding the high street, it is no surprising that we have seen such a marked uptick.

As we start a fresh month, here we take a look back at which sectors garnered the most interest in terms of flow in May. The green shoots of the recovery continue to flourish, with a late pick up last month in buying interest amongst the apparel names. Elsewhere, Food & Beverage had a quieter month than April, while Cap Goods remains a key focus for both Hedge Funds and Institutions. It was also very exciting to see a small uptick in interest around the Banks again from Hedge Funds.