By Claire Racine

JPMorgan Overseas Investment Trust manager, Jeroen Huysinga, says tracking the benchmark can limit investment opportunities. He would rather concentrate on individual companies rather than taking top down views.

“I prefer a bottom up stock selection approach and taking sector or market views limits the potential to do this,” Huysinga said. “In the current environment, I want to be able to invest where I see potential and not be constrained to hold the same stocks as my peers.”

Huysinga’s strategy has contributed significantly to performance since taking over managing the investment trust at the end of 2008. Since then, the investment trust’s share price has appreciated 29.11%. The benchmark, the MSCI AC World Index, has appreciated 4.6% in the same time period.

Utilising a global team of over 60 experienced analysts, the focus of the trust on stock picking drives a stock turnover of over 100%, with a holding of approximately 80 stocks at a time.

“It has been a turbulent few months with incredible market volatility, but we have avoided the noise and focused on finding good companies around the world to invest in,” Huysinga added. “Our main differentiator with peers has been a combination of avoiding focusing on the benchmark and using local expertise of analysts.”

Huysinga has been increasing his exposure in China’s emerging stock markets as he sees China leading the charge in global recovery. His other areas of investment include pharmaceuticals, travel companies, basic industries, such as steel, and financials, such as regional banks.