Rudi's View | 10:00 AM
Australian equities can be a source of enjoyment and plenty of rewards, but there are other times when share prices simply won't cooperate with our plans and well-intentioned decisions.
By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck, Editor
With only 35% of ASX200 constituents in positive territory thus far in calendar 2026, let's just say not every investor in Australian equities is having a jolly good time.
Below, I share some notes and thoughts for everyone else who is having a tough time in a market in which there always seems to be one more reason for share prices to retreat, even if the headline index does not necessarily follow suit.
Mixed News From The AI Supercycle
One of the holdings that has made a large positive contribution over the past few months is Dicker Data ((DDR)), for exactly the reason it is held in the Portfolio: to ride on the coattails of the global AI infrastructure supercycle.
Apart from selling some hardware components to new data centres, the company supplies hardware, software, technical support, financing and logistics required for customers, mostly medium-sized businesses, to deploy AI.
As became clear in August, that's currently one of the better demand dynamics feeding into one's distribution network. Dicker Data proved one of relatively few eye-catching blow-me-away financial performances.
There is an appropriate degree of hesitation when deciding which AI-related stocks should be included in the Portfolio, which also holds the likes of Goodman Group ((GMG)) and NextDC ((NXT)), but thus far this year the positive news has stopped with Dicker Data.
It's not that Goodman Group and NextDC aren't performing operationally --they most definitely are!-- but market sentiment towards data centres and AI exposures generally has soured pretty quickly over the months past.
This week is no exception. Most ASX-listed AI exposures have had a tough time thus far in 2026, which can also be judged from share prices in Megaport ((MP1)) and Macquarie Technology ((MAQ)), but not so much from SKS Technologies ((SKS)).
Our conviction remains that all three companies in the Portfolio represent great value at current prices. We do not agree with the various doom & gloom scenarios painted by bearish scaremongers (and by golly gosh, there are many out there).
Alas, the roll-out of the next world changing technology is not a straight line into the horizon and right now general market sentiment is patchy, to put it mildly.
Rising bond yields are not exactly helpful for the sector.
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