Marks: 40 marks
Word Limit: Maximum
Submission Instructions: The assignment will be submitted via Canvas, Turnitin
Rubric/Marking criteria: A marking rubric is provided on Canvas.
The assessment is submitted as an individual assignment
You will be given funds to invest in the share market. You are required to construct two $1,000,000 equity investment portfolios:
1. A passive portfolio replicating the return of the index
2. An active portfolio to achieve your investment objective of outperforming the index
You will then prepare a report in which you can explain your investment strategy for constructing a passive and an active portfolio and then evaluate the investment performance of each in terms of absolute and relative return, risk and attribution effects to explain the differences in performance of each portfolio. You will be given an equally weighted index of ten companies selected from companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.
This assessment replicates the tasks that would be undertaken by portfolio managers in a real-world investment company. For the passive portfolio, your task will be to replicate, as closely as possible, the risk and return characteristics of the benchmark index. For your active portfolio, your task will be to select stocks and sectors, which will result in your portfolio achieving a higher return than the index.
Your task is not necessarily to produce a positive return. If the markets fall in value, then your passive portfolio should fall in value by a similar degree. Your active portfolio should aim to outperform the return on the index: if the index falls, your portfolio should fall by a lesser amount; if the index rises, then your portfolio should rise by a higher amount.
The final submission should fulfil the following minimum requirements
For Passive portfolio
· calculate the number of shares required for your passive portfolio to replicate the composition of the index
For Active portfolio
Assess all ten companies and sectors from the index
· analyse the outlook for each company’s industry
· analyse the macroeconomic environment at the global and domestic level
· identify the firms and sectors that you consider will outperform relative to the index and build your active portfolio to reflect your predictions
· analyse and comment on the financial ratios of each company over the previous five years. Examples of ratios that can be used-
· Return on Equity
· Net Profit Margin
· Earnings Growth
Evaluate your findings and select six companies for your active portfolio
· after assessing the ten companies, select six to be included in your active portfolio
· describe the reasons for your selections (around 5 bullet points for each stock)
· also, describe the reasons why you have not chosen the other four firms (around 5 bullet points for each stock)
· assign portfolio weights for each of your companies and discuss why you have chosen the weights in comparison to the weight of each stock in the index
· calculate the number of shares required for each company to create a portfolio with the initial weights you have selected for your active portfolio
è why are some companies overweight in your portfolio, and why are others underweight?
è what do these active weights mean for your portfolio’s potential performance relative to the index?
Build your portfolios
· create these two portfolios in LSEG Workspace, ensuring that all dates and numbers of shares are correct
Portfolio Creation Dates
Passive and Active
· Start Date: Monday, May 13th, 2024
Portfolio Names in Workspace
· Passive: Student number Replication (Ex. s3254663 Replication)
· Active: Student number Active (Ex. s3254663 Active)
Benchmark Portfolio
· BAFI 1042 Sem 1 2024
Portfolio Analysis period for both portfolios
· Start Date: Monday, May 13th, 2024
· End Date: Friday, June 7th, 2024
Observe your portfolios’ performances over the analysis period
· as the share prices change over the evaluation period, you will be able to watch how the returns on the index, your active portfolio and your passive portfolio react
Report Summary should include the following minimum points
· discuss your investment goals and stock selection strategies
For each portfolio
· explain the reasoning for your stock selection and weighting relative to the index
· attach screenshots of your portfolios created in Workspace
· report your results for each portfolio
· provide comments on the total return/risk and active return/risk of your portfolios
· discuss the sectors and securities’ active weights in your portfolio
· analyse the active return of your portfolios with reference to the allocation and selection effects
· What was the overall performance of the active portfolio, your passive portfolio and the benchmark index?
· describe any major market events that contributed to the return performance of the benchmark or of your portfolios
· have you achieved (or not achieved) the goal for your passive/active portfolio
Finally, which of the two portfolios will you recommend and why?
Data for your report from Workspace
Workspace calculates the portfolio statistics you will require for your report. The information you will need can be found as listed below.
Information | Workspace Location |
Total and Active Return | Balanced Summary – Contribution |
Contribution to Return | Equity Summary – Performance/Contribution |
Contribution to Portfolio Weight | Equity Summary – Allocation |
Allocation and Selection Effects | Brinson Single Currency |
Contribution to Total Risk | Ex-ante Multi-factor Risk – Portfolio Summary |
Contribution to Active Risk | Ex-ante Multi-factor Risk – Active Summary |
Performance Ratios (Sharpe, Treynor) | Return Statistics |
The index constituents, which each have a 10% weighting, are as follows:
Code | Company | Sector |
COH.AX | Cochlear Limited | Healthcare |
ANN.AX | Ansell Limited | Healthcare |
ACL.AX | Australian Clinical Labs Limited | Healthcare |
IDX.AX | Integral Diagnostics Limited | Healthcare |
JBH.AX | JB Hi-Fi Ltd | Consumer Discretionary |
LOV.AX | Lovisa Holdings Ltd | Consumer Discretionary |
BRG.AX | Breville Group Limited | Consumer Discretionary |
KLS.AX | Kelsian Group Limited | Industrials |
AZJ.AX | Aurizon Holdings Limited | Industrials |
THL.AX | Tourism Holdings Rentals Limited | Industrials |