The fund C WorldWide Global Equities Ethical 1C decreased 1.9% in December, which was worse than the fund's benchmark index, which decreased 1.2%. Over the past full year, the fund rose 16.2 percent and is thus worse than the index, which has increased 28.8 percent. This is stated in a monthly report from the fund managers Mattias Kolm, Bo Knudsen, Bengt Seger and Peter O'Reilly.

Initially, the managers state that global stock markets ended the year with a decline in December, after a strong performance the month before. Equity markets fell in the US, Europe and most Asian countries.

Managers point out that the Fed signaled a more cautious approach to future rate hikes with its cut in the federal funds rate, which was the third cut since September.

Among the biggest contributors to the portfolio in December were Alphabet, Amazon and TSMC. Alphabet rose firmly after several product launches, including the new Willow quantum chip, an improved version of its Gemini LLM and Trillium TPU.

Among the biggest negative contributors to the portfolio were Novo Nordisk, Ferguson and Adobe.

Novo Nordisk suffered a sharp decline in the stock market after the results of the long-awaited REDIFINE 1 study for the drug CagriSema were published in late December.

The study showed an average weight loss of 22.7%, which was significantly lower than the market expectation of 25%, leading to a 21% drop in the share price on the same day.

However, the trustees emphasize that on closer inspection, the results are not bad, at least not from an efficiency perspective, but rather point to shortcomings in the company's communication.

It is worth noting that this is, after all, the best phase 3 study conducted to date, with Eli Lilly's corresponding SURMOUNT 1 study for tirzepatide showing a slightly lower average weight loss of 22.5%.

A key factor behind the market's reaction appears to have been misunderstandings about the design of the study. REDIFINE 1 used a 'flexible' design whereby patients were not necessarily titrated up to the highest dose, but instead allowed to adjust the dosage as needed.

This resulted in only 57% of patients reaching the maximum dose. The debate is whether this is because patients were satisfied with a weight loss close to 23% and therefore did not increase the dose, or whether side effects discouraged the use of higher doses.

Novo Nordisk plans to conduct a new study to maximize weight loss using a more traditional approach, but this study will take two years to complete.

The managers note that Novo Nordisk's share price has recovered somewhat since initial reactions, as more investors have now realized that the study results are better than first feared.

Despite this, they point out that CagriSema did not prove to be as superior to Eli Lilly's competitor drug as many had hoped. As confidence in the company's communication has been damaged, a full recovery of the share price is likely to be gradual.

In terms of portfolio activity, the managers report that no changes were made during the month.

The largest holdings in the Fund's portfolio at the end of the month were Visa, HDFC Bank and Amazon with weightings of 6.0%, 5.8% and 5.3% respectively. Meanwhile, the largest sectors were financials, information technology and industrial goods and services.

C WorldWide Global Equities Ethical 1C, %December, 2024
Fund MM, % change-1,9
Index MM, % change-1,2
Full year fund, % change 16,2
Full-year index, percentage change 28,8