Whether markets are adopting a risk-on or risk-off attitude, global equity funds typically remain popular among investors due to their regional diversification benefits. According to flow data from Calastone, global equity funds achieved net inflows for more than two years until October 2024, while many of their regional counterparts suffered outflows.

But how concerned should investors be about regional biases? According to MSCI, the World and All-Country World indices – the IA Global sector’s two most popular benchmarks – hold a respective 72.7% and 65.2% allocation to the US alone. This has naturally transferred to funds, with the average portfolio in the sector holding a 58.1% weighting to US stocks, according to FE data.

Are regional imbalances the best way to generate returns for clients? Or does the industry need to start taking a closer look at concentration risk? We spend the day debating how global funds can best slice the regional pie to benefit investors.

A word from our editor

Keynote

Salman Ahmed

Global head of macro and strategic asset allocation, Fidelity

Salman joined Fidelity in August 2020 as global head of macro and strategic asset allocation. Previously, he was co-chair of Global Investment Committee and chief investment strategist at Lombard Odier IM (LOIM). Before spending nearly eight years with LOIM, he was head of global macro at EDF trading between 2009 and 2012. He also spent nearly five years with Goldman Sachs International as a global economist within the global macro team. He began his career in finance with Watson Wyatt (now Towers Willis Watson) in 2001.

Panel debate

More panelists to be announced soon

Ben Kumar
Head of equity strategy
7iM

Ben is head of equity strategy in the investment management team, also specialising in behavioural finance. He appears regularly on radio and television, discussing the facts, fiction and psychology of the financial world.

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Stephen Anness
Head of global equities
Invesco

Stephen began his investment career at Invesco within the Henley-based UK Equities team in July 2002 as a trainee analyst. Having come through the investment team ranks, Stephen started managing UK equity portfolios in September 2004 and took on the management of his first UK fund in 2008, before moving to the Henley-based Global Equities team at the end of 2012. Stephen has been a key part of the idea generation and stock selection process in global equity portfolios since 2009. He took over responsibility for the global equity income strategy in December 2019, having previously managed the team's global opportunities strategy.

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