Morningstar rounds up women PM perspectives for IWD

Yasmine Raso

Senior Journalist, Financial Newswire

10 March 2026

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues on its disruptor trajectory, Australia’s female portfolio managers are mostly in agreeance that its full impact on investment markets is yet to be determined, according to Morningstar’s latest analysis.

In honour of International Women’s Day, the research has gathered the industry perspectives of several “top-performing” female portfolio managers in Australia, according to its Pillar ratings process, as they detail their outlook for the year ahead across regions and asset classes.

“We think Australian fixed income is currently cheap [and] the transmission mechanism in Australia is faster than in other developed markets in both the cash flow and currency channels,” Rachael Boyte, Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager at PIMCO, said.

“The recent economic improvement has been driven by consumption, and we question how durable that will be given the high levels of household indebtedness. The AUD trade-weighted index has also appreciated 6.5% since the November Statement of Monetary Policy meeting, which will act as an automatic stabilizer and have the effect of bringing inflation down over time.

“10-year yields at around 4.75% are nearly 100 [basis points] over the RBA cash rate. Bond rates are higher now than they were a year ago when the RBA had the cash rate at the cycle peak, which makes it an attractive entry point to earn income.

“… Valuations are looking stretched compared with most historical measures and that bond yields are looking attractive over equities earnings yields. It’s not very often that investors get the opportunity to go up in quality, liquidity, and also in potential return.”

According to Dr. Joanna Nash, Senior Quantitative Portfolio Manager and Head of Portfolio Management at RQI Investors, a crystal ball would be useful to “help predict the markets” right now, especially given the impact of geopolitical influences and trade policies fuelling heightened levels of volatility.

“A couple of stocks that we currently like based on our alpha model include Resolute Mining as well as NRW Holdings. These both score well across the many insights in our alpha model,” she said.

According to Morningstar’s report, interest rate policy is also “firmly on her radar”.

“Absent any tail risks, we will continue to see divergence in the path of monetary policy across different economies,” Katie Dean, Head of Fixed Income and Currency at AustralianSuper, said.

She also noted how “labor markets are diverging across many economies, which is typically a strong indicator that interest rate paths will follow suit”.

When it comes to AI, Boyte maintained a “balanced tone” – reaffirming that the “AI race’s winners and losers remain uncertain”. Nash said it was one area that she’ll be monitoring quite closely.

“We see a lot of forward growth numbers have been built into valuations, and we will be looking to see if these companies can deliver on these expectations,” she said.

Dean noted how bond yields will also be impacted by direction of AI developments and whether they will be “inflationary or disinflationary”; she suspects “whatever the answer is, it won’t be a straight line”.