NESTOR Australia - Quarterly Report 2/2021

Nestor Australia had a decent quarter, rising 3.8% versus the Index's 5.1% gain.

Nestor Australia had a decent quarter, rising 3.8% versus the Index's 5.1% gain. The financial year ended very successfully with an excellent overall increase of 60.8% compared to 27.9% of the index.

The slight underperformance in the final quarter was due to an underweight in banks and iron ore stocks - but also to the relatively high cash ratio of the fund (which has now returned to just 2%).

Copper/zinc shares Foran Mining, lithium developer Liontown Resources, and Australian retailer Dusk Ltd were key contributors to positive performance.

Overall, the Australian market - especially in the second half of the quarter - consolidated previous strong gains. Corporate developments continued to be heavily influenced by the Corona situation, which was strongly in investors' focus despite a relatively "resistant" Australia.

On the trading side, the Fund was fairly quiet during the quarter. Positions in Dusk Limited, and Foran Mining were sold or halved ( both due to strong performance ), while positions were added in Firefinch ( gold, lithium ), Centaurus ( nickel ), Costa Group ( Australia's largest fruit and vegetable grower ) and QBE Insurance ( reinsurance ).

In the new quarter, the market looks mostly friendly. While the COVID situation in Australia has worsened (Australia's over-reliance on isolation and neglect of mass vaccination is taking its toll), interest in commodities remains very positive. Especially so-called battery metals, which are essential for the production of modern batteries, such as lithium and nickel, continue to attract great interest among institutional and private investors.


We continue to see value in selected mining stocks, but also in Australian industrial stocks - especially small-caps such as the heavily weighted IVE Group (printing, advertising), Australia Vintage (wine), Veem Limited (special shipbuilding) are considered favourable.

Wilhelm Schröder, Schröder Equities GmbH