Manulife Dana Saham Kelas A

The fund outperformed the benchmark in 4Q-24. Key contributor to performance was selection effect in the financials and communications sectors. The fund’s overweight position in smaller banks result in positive contribution, while the communication sector outperformed the market in the period. Key detractor to performance was allocation in consumer discretionary sector, due to underweight position in a technology ride-hailing company that outperformed in the period. Going forward, the market is expected to be volatile while Indonesia is currently at the crossroads of both internal and external noises. The fund focuses on the bottom-up level and seek companies with high competitive advantage and strong balance sheet to capture growth opportunity when it arrives. We maintain our preference on domestic-driven sector with high quality earnings, which among others are financials, telecommunication, and consumer sector as earnings trajectory remains positive and valuation remains reasonable.

Manulife Saham Andalan

The fund outperformed the benchmark in 4Q-24. Key contributor to performance was selection effect in the financials and utilities sectors. The fund’s overweight position in smaller banks result in positive contribution, while allocation in an energy producer in the utilities sector outperformed due to expectation of IPO of its subsidiary. Meanwhile key detractor to performance was allocation in the materials sector due to underweight in a coal producer that outperformed in the period. Going forward, the market is expected to be volatile while Indonesia is currently at the crossroads of both internal and external noises. The fund focuses on the bottom-up level and seek companies with high competitive advantage and strong balance sheet to capture growth opportunity when it arrives. We maintain our preference on domestic-driven sector with high quality earnings, which among others are financials, telecommunication, and consumer sector as earnings trajectory remains positive and valuation remains reasonable.

Manulife Greater Indonesia Fund

The fund outperformed the benchmark in 4Q-24. Key contributor to performance was selection effect in the financials and utilities sectors. The fund’s overweight position in smaller banks result in positive contribution, while allocation in an energy producer in the utilities sector outperformed due to expectation of IPO of its subsidiary. Meanwhile key detractor to performance was allocation in the energy sector due to underweight in a coal producer that outperformed in the period. Going forward, the market is expected to be volatile while Indonesia is currently at the crossroads of both internal and external noises. The fund focuses on the bottom-up level and seek companies with high competitive advantage and strong balance sheet to capture growth opportunity when it arrives. We maintain our preference on domestic-driven sector with high quality earnings, which among others are financials, telecommunication, and consumer sector as earnings trajectory remains positive and valuation remains reasonable.

Manulife Pendapatan Bulanan  II

The fund underperformed in the period against absolute return benchmark, amid highly volatile environment due to US policy and Fed Funds Rate uncertainties. Key detractor to performance came mainly from negative bond price change as the yield curve rose across all tenors. The short-tenor underperformed with the 5Y rose 83bps, while the 10Y rose 53bps, and the 15Y rose 42bps. The yield curve moved in bearish flattening pattern as Bank Indonesia conduct operation twist (raising short-tenor yield, while managing the belly and long-end) to attract foreign investment to the bond market amid pressure on Rupiah and the risk of foreign outflow. Meanwhile the benchmark is an absolute return benchmark (time deposit) unaffected by market volatility. Heightened volatility is expected to extend into 2025 as investors wait for Mr. Trump’s policies post-inauguration and its impact to US inflation.

Manulife Obligasi Negara Indonesia II Kelas A

The fund underperformed the benchmark in Q4 on net return basis, amid highly volatile environment due to US policy and Fed Funds Rate uncertainties. Key detractor to performance was the fund’s allocation in the belly and long-tenor part of the curve, as yields rose across all tenors. The 10Y rose 53bps, and the 15Y rose 42bps in the period. Market volatility heightened in Q4 following Donald Trump’s victory on US election that revived narrative of ‘US exceptionalism’ and concern of higher rates for longer. Heightened volatility is expected to extend into 2025 as investors wait for Mr. Trump’s policies post-inauguration and its impact to US inflation. We look to reduce portfolio duration under this environment.

Manulife USD Fixed Income Kelas A

The fund underperformed in the period against absolute return benchmark, amid highly volatile environment due to US policy and Fed Funds Rate uncertainties. Key detractor to performance came mainly from negative bond price change as the yield curve rose across all tenors. The short-tenor underperformed with the 5Y USD INDOGB rose 93bps, while the 10Y rose 80bps, and the 15Y rose 65bps. The yield curve moved in bearish flattening pattern as Bank Indonesia conduct operation twist (raising short-tenor yield, while managing the belly and long-end) to attract foreign investment to the bond market amid pressure on Rupiah and the risk of foreign outflow. Meanwhile the benchmark is an absolute return benchmark (time deposit) unaffected by market volatility. Heightened volatility is expected to extend into 2025 as investors wait for Mr. Trump’s policies post-inauguration and its impact to US inflation.

Manulife Dana Campuran II

The fund underperformed against the benchmark in 4Q-24 on net return basis. Key detractor to performance was due to the fund’s allocation in equity, mainly in the energy and utilities sectors. The fund had no position in ‘narrative-driven stocks’ that rose significantly in the benchmark within these sectors that caused detractor to performance. The stocks have extreme valuation and are not within MAMI’s universe. Meanwhile, key contributor came from positive selection effect in the consumer staples sector and positive contribution from the bond allocation. Going forward, the market is expected to be volatile while Indonesia is currently at the crossroads of both internal and external noises. We look to maintain overweight allocation in fixed income amid volatile market condition, with duration expected to be more conservative near neutral against benchmark. Meanwhile on the equity side we maintain our preference on domestic-driven sector with high quality earnings, which among others are financials, telecommunication, and consumer sector as earnings trajectory remains positive and valuation remains reasonable.

Manulife Dana Tumbuh Berimbang

The fund outperformed the benchmark in 4Q-24 on net return basis. The fund’s overweigh asset allocation in bonds result in contribution to alpha, with the bond allocation offsetting the underperformance on the equity allocation. On the bond side, the fund’s barbell allocation in short-tenor and belly result in positive contribution to performance. On the equity side, allocation in energy and financials sectors were the key contributors due to positive selection effect from holdings in coal producers and medium-sized banks. Meanwhile materials and communication sectors were the key detractors, due to underweight position in a coal producer that outperformed, and overweight in telco towers company that underperformed amid higher for longer narrative from Bank Indonesia.

Going forward, the market is expected to be volatile while Indonesia is currently at the crossroads of both internal and external noises. We look to maintain overweight allocation in fixed income amid volatile market condition, with duration expected to be more conservative near neutral against benchmark. Meanwhile on the equity side we maintain our preference on domestic-driven sector with high quality earnings, which among others are financials, telecommunication, and consumer sector as earnings trajectory remains positive and valuation remains reasonable.

Manulife Saham Syariah Asia Pasifik Dollar AS

 The fund outperformed the benchmark in 4Q on net return basis. The key positive relative contributions came from our Tech investments in Taiwan and India.  Our investment in Chinese battery maker was also a key contributor.  The key detractors were Korean battery manufacturers. 

The fund underwent some restructuring towards the end of 2024 due to a number of benchmark heavy Taiwan tech names being excluded from the Shariah list.  We subsequently reduced our weight in those names and added a number of new names within India and China.  The increase in positions in China were more related to ongoing tech self-sufficiency while we added a number of high growth names in India that should benefit from an upcycle in tech outsourcing as well as some other industrial names exposed to areas such as high voltage cables in India.  In addition, we added more to Indian pharma as well as directed some of our consumer exposure to 2-wheeler and tractor sales. 

Overall, our tech exposure at the end of the year is now lower at ~32% and this is now more evenly spread across Taiwan, Korea, China and India whereas before it was more concentrated in Taiwan.  The active weight on tech is still the highest among the sectors though, followed by Industrials.  India represents the largest absolute weight in the fund at just over 19% (although it is still below benchmark at 22%), followed by HK/China (19%), Australia (18%), South Korea (17%) and Taiwan (15%).  We are neutral China & Australia while moving to a small overweight in Taiwan and Korea.  Many ASEAN markets look inexpensive compared to north Asian peers and we will be looking for opportunities once fundamentals start to improve later in the year. 

Within China, EV & Renewable supply chains remain a thematic we are invested in but we had taken profits on these in Q4.  Increasingly, we are seeing more opportunities with the tech self-sufficiency area – further US sanctions or tariffs are only going to accelerate this trend domestically.  We are still cautious on many consumer sectors in China until we see more consumption focused stimulus. 

DRAM is an area of interest within Korea as we see a big increase in HBM – High Bandwidth Memory demand which carries with it substantially higher margins.

Manulife Saham Syariah Golden Asia Dolar AS Kelas A1

The fund outperformed the benchmark in 4Q-24. Key contributor to performance was strong selection effect in the energy and consumer discretionary sectors. In energy, overweight in Chinese oil and gas producer, and underweight in Indian conglomerate company result in positive contribution against the benchmark. Meanwhile, key detractor was the Chinese materials sectors that underperformed in the period amid concern of US-China relation. Going forward, heightened volatility is expected to extend into 2025 as investors wait for Mr. Trump’s policies post-inauguration and its impact to US inflation. The fund’s overweight is in the IT, healthcare, and utilities sector, while underweight in consumer discretionary and energy. We favor companies with structural growth story, for example advancement in technology innovation in China continues as companies pursue domestic substitution and self-sufficiency.  The emergence of DeepSeek showcases China’s progress on technological innovation which should speed up AI development and benefit AI supply chain in China. In India, we see opportunity in IT and healthcare, as rising digital adoption is an opportunity in India and beneficiary of rising corporate spending on IT services and AI.