The Australian Growth Fund rose +1.3% in March, lagging the benchmark index which rose 4.0%. The Real Estate (+9% in the month), Energy (+3%) and Utilities (+3%) sectors led the benchmark index higher, all being sectors we are not invested in. Conversely, Communication Services (-1%), Consumer discretionary (+1%) and Healthcare (+1%) lagged the index. These are sectors in which we have a number of investments across our portfolio. There was no major company-specific news which drove this underperformance in the month.

Resmed (+13.1%) continued to rebound after a solid earnings result in February which has relieved some concern about the long-term impact that the new generation of weight-loss drugs (GLP-1s) may have on the structural growth in demand for Resmed’s market leading sleep apnea product suite. Resmed announced the release of a new product in the US in March, the AirFit F40. This is a compact, full-face mask that offers the comfort of smaller masks without sacrificing performance, in order to help improve sleep apnea therapy compliance.

After rising strongly in recent months, Audinate (-9.7%) fell during March although there was no new material news related to the company. Audinate has been added to some indices in recent months including the ASX200 index in mid-March. This may have resulted in some passive investor buying which helped its share price performance in prior months. Post the index inclusion, as the incremental buying subsided, this may have lead to some weakness in the share price in the second half of the month.