Australia Macro+: Positioning Almanac - What Your Peers Are Buying

Research evidence excerpt

Australia Macro+: Positioning Almanac - What Your Peers Are Buying

Asia Pacific Insight

June 22, 2026 08:00 PM GMT

Morgan Stanley Australia Limited+MAustralia Macro+ Chris Read

Equity Strategist and Australia Economist

Positioning Almanac - What Chris.Read@morganstanley.comChris Nicol +61 2 9770-1513

Equity Strategist

Chris.Nicol@morganstanley.com +61 3 9256-8909

Your Peers Are Buying Antony Conte

Antony.Conte@morganstanley.com +61 2 9770-1544

Our newly created database of domestic fund manager equity Isabel Black

positioning shows a cohort short Banks, long Defensives, and EquityIsabel.Black@morganstanley.comStrategist +61 2 9775-2519

light on Resources.

Key Takeaways

A large Banks UW remains the key active skew for domestic fund managers,

driven by CBA UW that is 4x the next largest, with ANZ the only major bank OW.

Funds are OW Healthcare (CSL still a top active holding), Staples (COL>WOW), Exhibit 1 : Sector positioning skew (May-

and Non-Bank Financials (MQG top holding, Insurers OW building). 2026)

Materials positioning still UW despite being trimmed in the past year, driven by

concentrated fund positions. Domestic preference is RIO (OW) over BHP (UW).

The latest data to May showed sector weight added to Industrials, and Financials

UW trimmed. CBA, WBC, MTS, VNT notable adds, CSL, WDS the largest

reductions.

We include an interactive tool (Exhibit 3) that allows full filtering by stock and

sector and shows latest positions, changes, and recent trends.

A newly created, unique insight into domestic active equity positioning. Domestic Exhibit 2 : Stock positioning skew (May-2026)

investment managers are the third-largest holders of Australian equities and

consistently the most active. To assess how that pool is positioned we have