• The majority of managers are seeing average or above average opportunities in terms of absolute upside for Australian Equities over a 1-2 year timeframe.
• Managers are significantly more optimistic on the opportunity set for Value relative to Growth. 
• A key driver of positive sentiment is the expectation of fundamental upside relative to current consensus estimates.
   

The Australian Equities market moved significantly higher (+23.8%) over the 2019 calendar year, which provide stark contrast to the weakness that preceded the period when the benchmark fell 8.4% in the December 2018 quarter.

2019 provided a strong year of returns for Australian Equities, however many active managers struggled with the market environment which saw returns underpinned by a significant increase in valuations, rather than being driven by underlying fundamentals.