Best & Worst: November 2025

Welcome to Betashares Best & Worst for November 2025, bringing you insights into our top and bottom performing funds for the month, as well as a spotlight fund.

November 2025 Overview:

• Both international and domestic equity markets were volatile in November due to growing concerns around a potential AI bubble. International equities were also impacted by dampening rate cut expectations, but this was soon reversed after US Federal Reserve officials indicated a December cut was still in play. The MSCI World and S&P 500 ended the month with modest positive returns.
• Australian equites struggled to unwind the AI-related drop. The ABS’s inaugural monthly CPI figure indicated that both headline and trimmed mean inflation rose in the 12 months to October and have been doing so since June this year¹. Consensus is currently that the RBA’s next move is more likely a rate hike than a rate cut.
• Domestic and international bond yields also diverged with the differing central bank stances. The AusBond Composite lost -0.88% in November as a result, while the Global Aggregate gained 0.18%.

Source: Morningstar. As at 30 November 2025. Past performance is not an indicator of future performance of any index or fund. All performance figures quoted in AUD. You cannot invest directly in an index. Fund returns are calculated in Australian dollars using net asset value per unit at the start and end of the specified period and do not reflect brokerage or the bid ask spread that investors incur when buying and selling units on the ASX. Fund returns are after fund management costs, assume reinvestment of any distributions and do not take into account tax paid as an investor in the Fund. Fund returns for periods longer than one year are annualised. Current performance may be higher or lower than the performance shown.

Spotlight:

Betashares S&P Australian Shares High Yield ETF (ASX: HYLD)

Many Australian investors are accustomed to receiving a strong income stream simply by holding the broad market, or even a selection of blue-chip ASX stocks. However, 12-month dividend yields of the S&P/ASX 200 have been steadily declining over the last three years from 4.47% in November 2022 to 3.47% in November 2025, well below the 10-year average of 4.12%². The largest stock on the ASX, CBA, now has a 12-month yield of 4.54% compared to its 10-year average of 6.48%² (thanks in part to the ballooning valuations through 2024/25).

HYLD was launched in August this year to address the income gap that has been left in many investors’ portfolios. Its index has a 12-month dividend yield of 4.83% (1.26% higher than the ASX 200)³ as at the end of November and has been intelligently designed to avoid common issues associated with traditional high yielding indices, including dividend traps and weak price momentum.

An example of these screens in action is the exclusion of CBA from HYLD due its low forecast yield and price volatility. In November, the stock single-handedly detracted -1.19% from the unfiltered ASX 200⁴.

Since its launch, HYLD has outperformed the ASX 200 by 3.47% on a total return basis, providing investors a combination unit price growth while delivering consistent, monthly income of $0.12 per unit.

Source: Morningstar. As at 30 November 2025. Past performance is not an indicator of future performance of any index or fund. Returns are calculated in Australian dollars using net asset value per unit at the start and end of the specified period and do not reflect brokerage or the bid ask spread that investors incur when buying and selling units on the ASX. Returns are after fund management costs, assume reinvestment of any distributions and do not take into account tax paid as an investor in the Fund. Returns for periods longer than one year are annualised. Current performance may be higher or lower than the performance shown.

Best:

Betashares Global Gold Miners Currency Hedged ETF (ASX: MNRS)

After October played host to the largest single-day fall in gold prices in five years, November was a return to form, with gold climbing back to USD 4,217 per ounce by month-end – a rise of 5.3%⁵. This was supported by renewed rate cut prospects in the US and a weakening US Dollar, but is also representative of the longer-term tailwinds supporting gold prices including central bank buying, continued geopolitical instability and the longer-term rate cutting environment.

The October correction hit the gold miners held by MNRS particularly hard with the fund falling by 5.9% – a somewhat predictable fall given commodity miners’ share prices are typically a leveraged play on the price of the underlying resource. November saw this price action occur in reverse, with the 5.3% gold price rise leading to MNRS returning close to 3 times this figure.

Leading the charge was the fund’s largest holding – Barrick Mining. Barrick has recently received significant investment worth at least USD 700m from Elliott Management, the world’s largest activist hedge fund⁶. Elliott appear to be backing structural overhaul within Barrick Mining and, based on their prior success with AT&T, eBay and BHP, share prices reacted positively. Barrick’s shares rose by 27.9% in November, contributing 2.35% to the fund⁷.

Betashares Energy Transition Metals ETF (ASX: XMET)

Gold was not the only metal to shine in November. Silver, Lithium and Copper, which are mined and produced by companies held by XMET, also had a strong month gaining 15.6%, 16.4%, and 1.94% respectively⁸.

Silver has historically been highly correlated to the price of gold. However, because silver is being used to an increasing extent in environmental technologies such as solar panels, batteries and high-voltage wiring, it also becoming linked to global technology and environmental optimism which recovered in the second half of November. A combination of this, and the factors discussed above which drove up gold prices led to Endeavour Silver and Hecla Mining being the third and fourth largest contributors to XMET in November after share prices rose 20.9% and 30.5% for the month, contributing 1.17% and 1.13% to the fund⁹.

Regarding Lithium, rising prices are a welcome sight particularly after falling by 84% since the November 2022 peak¹⁰. Demand for lithium-ion batteries for cars and electronic goods continues to grow, but another use-case is emerging – data centres. Because of the superior lifespan, capacity, and discharge potential of lithium-ion batteries, they are being heavily adopted by the likes of Google who boast 100 million cells as a backup energy source in case of outages or disturbances¹¹. Australian Lithium miner PLS (formerly Pilbara Minerals) was the largest contributor to returns for XMET, with a 22.7% rise in their share price, contributing 1.43% to XMET’s November returns ¹².

Betashares Global Healthcare Currency Hedged ETF (ASX: DRUG)

Healthcare was by far the top performing sector in international equities in November and appears to be turning a corner following weak performance since August last year – DRUG delivered its fourth consecutive month of positive returns and its highest monthly return since December 2021.

From a macro lens, the market volatility in November (AI bubble concerns, dampening and then revived US rate cut expectations) played into the hands of the sector, as investors turned to healthcare as a ‘defensive growth’ play, leading to positive returns from 50 of DRUG’s 60 constituents¹³.

However, one of these 50 stocks rose above the rest – the world’s largest pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly led from the front, breaking the USD 1 trillion market capitalisation mark (the first healthcare company to do so). For the full month of November, Eli Lilly’s share price increased by close to 25%, resulting in a 2.19% contribution to DRUG’s monthly returns¹⁴. This was on the back of significant demand for their weight loss and diabetes treatment drugs Zepbound and Mounjaro, with the latter bringing USD 6.52 billion in revenue in Q3 – a 109% increase on Q3 2024¹⁵.

Source: Morningstar. As at 30 November 2025. Past performance is not an indicator of future performance of any index or fund. Returns are calculated in Australian dollars using net asset value per unit at the start and end of the specified period and do not reflect brokerage or the bid ask spread that investors incur when buying and selling units on the ASX. Returns are after fund management costs, assume reinvestment of any distributions and do not take into account tax paid as an investor in the Fund. Returns for periods longer than one year are annualised. Current performance may be higher or lower than the performance shown.

Worst:

Betashares Ethereum ETF (ASX: QETH)
Betashares Crypto Innovators ETF (ASX: CRYP)
Betashares Bitcoin ETF (ASX: QBTC)

November was salt in the wounds after a disappointing ‘Uptober’ for crypto. The risk-off sentiment at the start of the month was the dominant force, with AI bubble fears and dashed rate cut expectations sending the two digital currencies tumbling along with the ‘picks and shovels’ companies held by CRYP.

As we saw last month with the Ethereum sell off, once prices start to drop there can be a snowball effect due to the number of leveraged positions which, in turn, get liquidated. This dynamic contributed to a 24-hour period of USD 617 million of crypto liquidations, of which USD 240 million were Bitcoin and USD 169 million of Ethereum¹⁶.

Despite positive sentiment returning to equity markets in the second half of the month, QETH, CRYP and QBTC failed to regain ground. However, as more institutions look to adopt digital assets and accessibility increases (Vanguard recently approved crypto funds on their US platform), it is hoped positive momentum can be regained.

Betashares Global Uranium ETF (ASX: URNM)

After a weak October, spot uranium prices fell by a further -5.25% in November¹⁷. While URNM’s returns supported by the exceptional share price growth of Cameco in October (which gained 23%), there was no such relief last month, and URNM fell by 14.58%. In fact, only two holdings provided positive returns in November, highlighting the sensitivity of the Uranium producers to the underlying uranium price.

The falling prices were largely down to loosening supply, notably from one of the world’s largest producers Kazatomprom who reported Q3 output 10% higher than the same period in 2024, as well as a 33% growth in exports¹⁸. A certain irony exists whereby strong financial reports and guidance from suppliers of Kazatomprom’s scale pushes down the uranium price and can ultimately lower valuations – Kazatomprom shares fell by -5.64% for November, detracting -0.81% from URNM’s returns¹⁹.

Demand on the other hand remains strong (as it has done for several years) on the back of nuclear reactor development (particularly in China), positive sentiment from climate talks such as COP29, and the more recent development of small modular reactors in efforts to keep up with surging global energy demand due to vast datacentres and AI.

Betashares Global Defence ETF (ASX: ARMR)

November marked only the third negative month for ARMR since inception in October 2024 and the first negative return of more than -1% as defence stocks have been buoyed by strong tailwinds from increased NATO defence spending. For the first time, NATO members all met the 2% of GDP defence spending target this year and in June members unanimously committed to a new 5% of GDP target, to be met by 2035²⁰.

Evidently, November saw a deviation from this upward trend with ARMR making the ‘worst’ list (although technically it was not in the bottom three, but QETH, CRYP, and QBTC were grouped, above). Defence companies from all regions posted negative returns as there was optimism around Ukraine peace talks, combined with widespread risk-off sentiment in the first half of the month.

There was likely an element of profit-taking too, given the strong growth defence stocks have seen over the last two years. Palantir, the largest holding in ARMR posted a Q3 earnings beat of 24% and revenue beat of 8%²¹. However, when combined with the negative market sentiment this likely encouraged investors to ‘sell the news’ and take profits while valuations were high. For the month of November, Palantir shares fell 16.1%, detracting -1.52% from ARMR’s returns²².

*Excludes short and geared funds, aside from currency.**Annualised for funds with more than 1 year’s performance history. *** Certain additional costs apply. Please refer to the PDS.

Sources:

1. ABS

2. Bloomberg

3. Bloomberg

4. Morningstar Direct

5. Trading Economics

6. Miningmx

7. Morningstar Direct

8. Trading Economics

9. Morningstar Direct

10. Trading Economics

11. Google

12. Morningstar Direct

13. Morningstar Direct

14. Morningstar Direct

15. Lilly

16. Bitget

17. Cameco

18. Kazatomprom

19. Morningstar Direct

20. NATO

21. Nasdaq

22. Morningstar Direct