From the above, we have 20% allocated into Gold, 15% each into long term funds for India, Brazil and China, 5% each into UK, Australia and Germany and 20% into money market.
Recommended Conventional Fund: Manulife India Equity Fund
Justification : Our preferred fund when investing into India equity market. Key reasons why we favor this fund are:
- Have performed well on yearly basis (2015 : +19.32%, 2016 : +4.50% and 2017 : +31.21%)
- Available on our recommended online unit trust platform
- The only fund that invest purely into India Equity market.
Recommended Shariah Compliant Fund: TA BRIC & Emerging Markets Fund
Justification : There are limited unit trust funds in the Shariah category that are invested into the Emerging market area. As a matter of fact Morningstar only list one shariah compliant fund under the Emerging Market category which is this fund. Therefore it is only logical that we are recommending this fund for the Shariah portfolio.
The December 2017 factsheet for this fund indicates that it has allocated 14.02% of its total investment into India as shown below:
![](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PtehU8THklA/WmIWNWg_QII/AAAAAAAANMk/mEZJKbDBu1A2QmEScN92vpAVVW594ICbwCLcBGAs/s1600/TA%2BBRIC.png) |
TA BRIC & Emerging Markets Fund (Geographic Allocation) |
With no other option available, we are going to go with recommending this fund as the preferred shariah compliant fund for our India portfolio.
3) Recommended Unit Trust Fund for Brazil Market (15%)
Recommended Conventional Fund: Advantage BRIC Fund
Justification : While there is one other fund that's specifically investing into the Brazil Market, we could not pick that fund as our recommended fund because it is not available on the online unit trust platform.
Instead we are picking Advantage BRIC fund as our recommended fund due to its large allocation of investment into the Brazil market (19.89% to be exact as shown below):
![](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bm84bXP4QVI/WmIYA-kiA1I/AAAAAAAANMw/u8w1t6G53-EmOtBmJKk4lNZTokZEQuPuACLcBGAs/s400/Advantage%2BBRIC%2BAllocation.png) |
Advantage BRIC Country Allocation as of 30 Nov 2017 |
In addition this fund has also performed rather well in the past, returning +37.48% in 2016 and +16.50% in 2017.
Recommended Shariah Compliant Fund
Fund Name : TA BRIC & Emerging Markets Fund
Justification : As mentioned earlier, there's only one shariah compliant fund that's invested into the Emerging market. Therefore to represent the Brazil portfolio, we are going to go with TA BRIC & Emerging Markets fund which has allocated 16.09% of its total investment into the Brazil equity market as shown below:
![](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PtehU8THklA/WmIWNWg_QII/AAAAAAAANMo/geOKXb45hMM4am4VdaovEMIjXxBpDyy0gCEwYBhgL/s1600/TA%2BBRIC.png) |
TA BRIC & Emerging Markets fund allocated 16.09% into Brazil market |
4) Recommended Unit Trust Fund for China + Hong Kong Market (15%)
Recommended Conventional Fund: CIMB-Princial Greater China Equity Fund
Justification : One of the top performing Greater China funds in its category with a 5 STAR rating given by Morningstar. The other awesome point is that this fund has generated double digit % returns since 2012!
As for country allocation, we see that this fund has exposure into China (67.40%) and Hong Kong (16.00%). This jives with our portfolio recommendation of merging the China and Hong Kong market into a single portfolio allocation.
![](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6iyRS9Cfaxw/WmIbMyDI-5I/AAAAAAAANM8/VMvIRDgwJcIjXI2pxQuH2bK-0kk7Xpq5QCLcBGAs/s320/CIMB%2BPrincipal%2BGreater%2BChina%2BFund.png) |
CIMB-Principal Greater China Equity Fund Country Allocation |
Recommended Shariah Compliant Fund: Eastspring Investments Dinasti Equity Fund
Justification : This fund has been our fixed recommendation for Shariah compliant China fund since 2017. This fund is also the highest rated Shariah compliant Greater China fund, earning a 4 STAR from Morningstar. In terms of performance, this fund has return 20.62% annualized over a 3 year period and is the best performing shariah fund in this category.
![](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P9rahJPlVoI/WmIbQxpSjiI/AAAAAAAANNA/NCLnf0rm4FE9wKOHsjdrVh75YnCWKd7fQCLcBGAs/s400/Eastspring%2BDinasti%2BEquity%2BFund.png) |
Eastspring Investments Dinasti Equity Fund Country Allocation |
In terms of country allocation, this fund has 43.16% allocated into China and 23.67% into Hong Kong, making this fund the perfect candidate to match our portfolio recommendation of merging the China and Hong Kong market into a single portfolio allocation.
4) Recommended Unit Trust Fund for UK, Germany and Australia Market (15%)
Before going into the recommended funds, there's a need to highlight the lack of country focus unit trust funds available in Malaysia. In order to meet our portfolio allocation, we have to select funds that has large exposure into these markets.
In the case of Australia, we have also analyzed funds under the Asia Pacific category, hoping to find a fund with large exposure into Australia market. However, we were unable to find any fund that has a large exposure into Australia. Despite there is one particular fund that's investing purely into Australia, we could not recommend that fund as it is not available on the recommended online unit trust platform.
In summary we have decided that we will forego investing into Australia and split the 5% allocation to Germany and UK. Our portfolio now would now have 7.5% allocated to Germany and 7.5% allocated to UK as shown below:
![](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k4Ci4eYHxeM/WmIjVRUkmSI/AAAAAAAANNU/MoCuFl62HV0_79EHiUv-645itsMoXbbxACLcBGAs/s320/IME%2B2018%2BPortfolio%2BAllocation%2Bwithout%2BAustralia.png) |
% allocation of IME's Recommended Unit Trust Portfolio 2018 without Australia |
Recommended Conventional Fund: AmSchroders European Equity Alpha Fund
Justification : We pick this fund purely on the basis of its country allocation whereby 34.78% is allocated into UK and 3.36% is allocated into Germany as shown below:
![](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dLv6Bd81DyY/WmIkvnvHveI/AAAAAAAANNg/LHZ9hDN-cHc1HXNL3fl8vBE1nVpytVvqQCLcBGAs/s320/AmSchroder.png) |
AmSchroders European Equity Alpha Country Allocation |
In addition, the small exposure into Australia is an added bonus for this fund
Recommended Shariah Compliant Fund: RHB Islamic Global Developed Markets Fund
Justification : This fund is also selected based on its country allocation whereby 11.25% is allocated into Germany and 8.81% allocated for UK as shown below:
![](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VGADUukXiT8/WmImL5Z2PnI/AAAAAAAANNs/zl7YxheRdcop78GkCfQM4_QUt7SiZdyRQCLcBGAs/s320/RHB%2BIslamic%2BGlobal%2BDeveloped%2BMarkets%2BFund.png) |
RHB Islamic Global Developed Market Country Allocation |
SUMMARY of IME's Recommended Unit Trust Funds Portfolio for 2018
Here's a summary table of our 2018 Recommended Unit Trust Funds portfolio:
![](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-B1KZgtSZE94/WmInJf0ZhPI/AAAAAAAANN0/L3WA3In1ok8Ay-BiFG6Zleo2NTLijS-HQCLcBGAs/s400/Summary%2Bof%2BRecommened%2BUnit%2BTrust%2BPorfolio.png) |
2018 Recommended Unit Trust Funds portfolio - Click to Enlarge |
We hope that our analysis and recommendation would help Malaysian investors to make wiser decisions and have a successful 2018 investing year!