Daily Brief Financials: Japan Exchange Group, Yuexiu Real Estate Investment Trust, Brunner Investment Trust PLC, Merchants Trust and more

• We rate Japan Exchange as our 2024 high conviction buy in exchanges, for its attractive valuations, as well as its potential for increased market activity and big data revenue growth
• We believe that Japan Exchange is the exception to the rule that DM exchanges need to diversify their revenue bases, as it is under less de-regulatory pressure
• We also stick with Hong Kong Exchange as the deep value pick, as well as Deutsche Borse; we remain negative on Coinbase

Lucror Analytics Weekly Wraps provide an overview of all Morning Views comments and reports published by our analyst team in the past week, and also showcase a list of the most-read reports.

In this Insight:

1. NagaCorp Ltd
2. China Jinmao Holdings
3. Hopson Development
4. Greentown China
5. Seazen (Formerly Future Land)

and more…

The Brunner Investment Trust (BUT) has two co-managers, Christian Schneider (CIO global growth) and Julian Bishop (global growth specialist), who are supported by deputy managers Simon Gergel (CIO UK equities, UK dividend and value specialist) and James Ashworth (global growth specialist). BUT may be considered as a ‘fund for all seasons’ given its steady outperformance in recent years in widely different market environments. The trust’s NAV performance also stands out positively compared with its 12 peers in the AIC Global sector, ranking first over the last three years, second over the last five and fourth over one year. BUT’s dual mandate of both income and capital growth and its straightforward portfolio of listed global equities may be an ideal way for investors to gain exposure to overseas companies.

The Merchants Trust (MRCH) manager, Simon Gergel at Allianz Global Investors, has been at the helm for the last 17 years during a variety of market environments. He has remained true to his investment process, seeking high-quality companies with solid fundamentals that are trading on reasonable valuations. The manager is very encouraged by the current valuation backdrop as, in aggregate, the UK market is trading at the low end of its 20-year range and within the market there is a wide dispersion of valuation multiples. A large proportion of UK stocks, including those of quality businesses, are trading on forward P/E multiples of less than 10x, providing Gergel with a large pond in which to fish. His approach has proved successful with mid- and long-term outperformance of MRCH’s broad UK market benchmark. With the trust’s dual mandate of income and capital growth, it offers an attractive 5.2% dividend yield and has grown its annual dividends for the last 41 consecutive years.