2015's volatile Australian dollar hits Asian income payouts

Mike Kerley, co-manager of the Henderson Asian Dividend Income strategy, analyses how currency movements can significantly affect income levels for UK investors.

When looking at the -3.5% return in Asia Pacific ex Japan in 2015 for a sterling-based investor, it would be easy to deduce the last year was both unrewarding and uneventful for investors in the region. Even the returns in local currency were similar to those of the sterling investor, suggesting that the much vaunted weakness in Asian currencies had been immaterial. The devil, as always, is in the detail and a year that included a halving of the Chinese stockmarket, oil firmly entrenched below the $40/bl level, terrorism and geopolitical tensions at their highs, and the first US inter...