Mining stocks were a popular choice for direct and advised SMSF investors in March, reflecting a general trend towards purchasing equities in the resources sector during the month, according to Ausiex.
The trading platform stated the shift to large-scale mining companies came at the expense of banks for direct and advised investors both inside and outside the SMSF space, however, advised investors tended to be more diversified in their stock selections.
“Direct investors favoured Fortescue, BHP, Woodside Energy, Mineral Resources and Pilbara Minerals among their top trades last month,” it stated.
“By contrast, advised investors bought more industrials and exchange-traded funds (ETF).
“The growing popularity of private credit was also reflected in increased buying activity for Metrics Master Income Trust by advised investors.”
It noted the other stocks that were top 10 buys for direct investors included artificial intelligence dataset company Appen, Westpac Banking, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and e-payment provider Zip Co, while advised investors also opted for property developer Goodman Group, James Hardie, CSL and Woolworths.
“Direct SMSFs were more diversified than their direct share trading counterparts, but still favoured miners, followed by the big banks,” the platform added.
It pointed out the top 10 stocks for the month also included Wisetech Global, CSL, National Australia Bank (NAB), Westpac, CBA and Macquarie Group.
“Advised SMSFs were much more diversified across a broad range of industrials and listed funds and ETFs, along with a few miners in their top trades,” it said, noting they held only one bank stock in their top 10 stock picks, NAB.
Other stocks picked by this cohort included Goodman Group, Metrics Master Income Trust, iShares Core S&P/ASX 200 ETF, Vanguard MSCI International Shares ETF and BWP Trust, which owns Bunnings Warehouse sites across Australia.
The nature of the portfolios reflects a review of trades Ausiex carried out earlier this year in which it found advised SMSFs typically have a more diversified portfolio than those without an adviser and non-SMSF investors.
The trading platform also found SMSFs that used an adviser to trade had holdings of greater value compared to their non-advised counterparts.
