Post-pandemic surge for healthcare, banking and infrastructure sectors

Transcript

Dimitris Kantzelis is CEO of XSpot Wealth; the innovative, technology-driven wealth management company he co-founded to provide convenient, transparent, low-cost and flexible wealth management solutions to people at every level of income. In the first video from our interview with Dimitris, he discusses how the markets responded to the slow pandemic recovery of 2021. You can also watch him explain how XSpot Wealth has adapted and evolved through 2021, and outline the company’s new offering for institutional investors.

World Finance: Dimitris, obviously 2020 was a year of incredible volatility; how have the markets responded this year, as we inch closer to recovery?

Dimitris Kantzelis: Yes, it was a quite bumpy ride, especially in March 2020, when we saw the stock markets dropping more than 30 percent, and oil prices at some point trading at below zero levels. So that was a very difficult situation for investors, as they were dumping everything and getting cash, preparing for a lifetime catastrophe.

Now, we saw that governments and central banks were very well prepared to support the system, with trillions in stimulus packages. This is now bringing some fears of hyperinflation lasting for the next couple of years – this is the main theme of discussion for these current months and the next year.

The counter-argument for that is that these stimulus packages went to support households and businesses to get through the pandemic, as we saw record levels of savings all around the world. We believe those savings will help as we go out of this pandemic; we believe we will be going out very quickly, and we will be looking at the face of mature growth in the global stock and bond markets.

World Finance: And what sectors do you expect to perform well as life slowly returns to normal?

Dimitris Kantzelis: Well, we’re looking at some sectors specifically. I would mention the health sector, because the MRNA technology helped a lot – not only in the COVID-19 vaccines, but also in the entire research and development around vaccines for the future. So that’s a sector we’re focusing in.

The banking sector is another very important sector. The banks were very well capitalised this time, and we believe that with increasing interest rates they will be very profitable, so that’s another sector we’re focusing on.

Real estate is another sector – we’re seeing people buying houses, turning to real estate for safety after the global pandemic. And also infrastructure, as we’re trying to change the way we commute, and we live in cities.

So, these are the main sectors we’ll be focusing on.

World Finance: And which geographies do you expect to be outperforming?

Dimitris Kantzelis: We believe the US will keep outperforming the global stock and bond markets. We see some worries in China – we still believe China is going to be the next big thing for the next decade, but with the Evergrande situation and the debt issues of many companies, the overregulation that Beijing is trying to bring in, we believe that it might grow at a slower pace for the next couple of years.

Now Europe will also grow and get out of the pandemic, but the issue is the big energy crisis that is unfolding at the moment. So we believe this will be lagging the US as well.

World Finance: Dimitris, thank you very much.

Dimitris Kantzelis: Thank you so much.