Surveys
2015 Asset Class Performance: UK Property Victorious, Commodities Defeated

There has been a mismatch between the stance of UK investors towards some asset classes and their actual market performance, according to a survey.
UK property came out on top in 2015, with actual market performance up 10 per cent year-on-year and investor sentiment consistent at around the 40-50 per cent mark throughout the year, according to the Lloyds Bank Private Banking Investor Sentiment Index.
Meanwhile, Japanese equities appeared to be the performance success story of 2015, with actual market performance up 15.1 per cent year-on-year even though UK investors had a generally negative attitude towards them for most of the year.
“The results of the Investor Sentiment Index show that whilst there have been some real winners and losers when it comes to the actual performance of asset classes over the last year – sentiment doesn’t always truly reflect reality,” said Markus Stadlmann, chief investment officer at Lloyds Bank Private Banking.
“At times such as these it is more important than ever for investors to be well informed and advised on the latest global issues and trends in order to help ensure they maximise the performance of their portfolios, particularly over the longer term.”
For commodities, investor attitudes and actual market performance were more alligned. Sentiment stooped to -1.5 per cent towards the end of the year, a 9.1 percentage point drop from a year ago. But this was still a generous figure given that commodities was the worst performing asset class of the year with actual market performance down 40 per cent year-on-year.
Continued declines in commodity prices have cast a shadow over commodity-linked assets, including those from emerging markets. Oil prices have fallen by 40 per cent since the end of June while copper and iron have fallen by 30 per cent and 33 per cent, respectively, over the same period, noted Sun Global Investments last week. The emerging markets wealth management firm highlighted that the likely impact of the looming US interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve is also reflected in current prices.
Market performance of gold fell 12.2 per cent year-on-year but its “safe haven” status was still somewhat intact. The precious metal commanded positive sentiment of between 11 per cent and 36 per cent over the year, with current sentiment at 19.63 per cent, a 3 percentage point dip from a year ago.
While emerging market equities were in favour at the beginning of the year, they plummeted in popularity in summer when China experienced a stock market slide. Although sentiment towards emerging market equities is still positive, it has fallen by 10 percentage points year-on-year, with actual market performance of the asset class dipping 6.5 per cent year-on-year.
Sentiment towards UK equities, now at 26 per cent, has been all round positive this year, although this is notably below the summertime high of 40 per cent. While this asset class's performance is actually down by -2.7 per cent year-on-year, UK equities have rebounded by an encouraging 2.7 per cent over the last three months of 2015.
As for eurozone equities, after sentiment levels slid to a sour -48 per cent in the summer amid fears of a Greek exit, sentiment has since settled around -30 per cent. While "Grexit" concerns have subsided, the eurozone recovery still looks weak, according to Lloyds, and actual market performance is still down 4.5 per cent year-on-year.
The survey was carried out between 30 November and 1 December 2015 on 4,379 UK adults, of which 1,152 were investors.