BlackRock's Stefan Gries on why 2020 posed 'real test' for conviction in semiconductor market

Co-manager of Greater Europe IT

The co-manager of the £562m BlackRock Greater Europe investment trust said that the market selloff in early 2020 presented a “real test” of their investment philosophy and had him questioning the portfolio’s exposure to the semiconductor ecosystem.

But Stefan Gries, who co-manages the trust alongside Sam Vecht, said they instead took the opportunity to add to some of the semiconductor positions and there is now "better visibility" of that market than at any point. "Last year in March, when the world looked very uncertain, you could have looked at the portfolio and questioned, ‘We own a few companies that are part of the semiconductor ecosystem that can be quite cyclical in nature, so should you be selling any of these?'" said Gries. "To be honest, I asked myself that question at some point." BlackRock targets semiconductor bo...