Best & Worst – October 2025

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

October 2025 Overview:

• Domestic economic indicators gave mixed signals in October. Seasonally adjusted unemployment rose from 4.3% to 4.5%, increasing the probability of a November rate cut.  However, hopes were soon dashed by the release of quarterly CPI data, where the trimmed mean figure rose for the first time since reaching its peak in December 2022¹.
• Australian equities were led by the above ABS data: modest gains over the first three weeks which were largely wiped out by the inflation release at the end of the month, finishing the month flat.
• Despite the US Government shutdown commencing at the start of the month, global markets were more positive, buoyed by a 25bps rate cut in the US, strong earnings releases, and continued positive sentiment around AI. Despite trade tensions escalating mid-month, it was a case of ‘all’s well that ends well’ after Trump and Xi agreed to de-escalate.

Source: Morningstar. As at 31 October 2025. Past performance is not an indicator of future performance of any index or fund. All performance figures quoted in AUD.

Spotlight:

While the high inflation print dropped S&P/ASX 200 returns to near-zero in October, Australian small caps fared far better, continuing the trend of a rotation away from the top end of the market.  The S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries Index is now outperforming the ASX 200 by 13.19% year-to-date.

While this outperformance seems compelling, the unfiltered Small Ordinaries Index captures several speculative, unprofitable companies which can create both volatility and a drag on overall returns.  This is a flaw that the Betashares SMLL ETF attempts to address.

By applying rules-based screens to the small cap universe it excludes companies with negative earnings, poor debt-servicing ability, excessive valuations and the weakest price momentum.  This leaves a more financially robust portfolio of small cap companies that have historically outperformed the Small Ordinaries Index.

Comparing the year-to-date performance of SMLL to the Small Ordinaries Index², SMLL has outperformed by 6.54% year-to-date.  The key to this outperformance is SMLL’s screens successfully removing 8 of the 10 worst performing stocks in the unfiltered index, and limiting the downside from speculative companies such as Botanix Pharmaceuticals or Coronado Resources (-70% and -63% YTD)³.

These selection criteria are often employed by active managers in search of alpha.  SMLL does so while maintaining low fees at 0.39% p.a.^***, presenting a cost-effective access point to high quality Australian small cap companies.

Source: Morningstar. As at 31 October 2025. Past performance is not an indicator of future performance of any index or fund. All performance figures quoted in AUD.

Best:

Monthly returns of 12.16% put CRYP in the ‘best’ for the second month running, despite Bitcoin and Ethereum dropping by -2.93% and -5.60% respectively⁴ (in AUD terms, as measured by the Betashares Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs).

CRYP provides exposure to the companies supporting the growth of the digital asset industry (including blockchain requirements) – this creates a tie to the rapidly growing data centre and cloud storage sectors, which can be seen when delving into the fund’s the top performing holdings.

The fund’s largest holding, IREN, had another strong month – the stock gained 31.05% in October, contributing 3.33% to returns⁵, most of which occurred in the first half of the month.  This was in relation to the company’s diversification towards AI capabilities and the announcement of new multi-year AI cloud contracts for NVIDIA Blackwell GPU deployments.

Applied Digital, a company that designs and operates high-performance data centres, also had a strong month returning 52.96% and contributing 2.65% to CRYP’s total return⁶.  The company’s September quarter earnings drove performance, with revenues growing 84% year-on-year⁷.

The biggest news in Japan was the election of their first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi.  This served as a significant boost to Japanese equities, with the newly dubbed ‘Sanae-nomics’ emphasising fiscal spending, expansionary monetary policy, and a weaker Yen (to the benefit of exporters).

Secondly, as an export-dependent economy, the calming of US-China trade tensions towards the end of the month served as a further tailwind for Japanese equities – particularly the exporter-focussed HJPN.  The positive sentiment saw HJPN comfortably regain the 3.9% it lost after Trump threatened to impose a 100% tariff on Chinese imports.

Finally, AI optimism also spans to Japan, with companies linked to AI and the semiconductor supply chain bringing strong positive returns to HJPN.  The top contributor in October was Advantest, a manufacturer of semiconductor testing equipment which has cemented its place at the top of the Nikkei 225 after its share price grew over 85% this year⁸.  Advantest released strong September quarter earnings, with net sales up 60% year-on-year, leading to increased 2026 sales guidance by ¥115bn (AUD 1.14bn)⁹.  In October, the stock returned 53.26% and contributed 1.20% to the fund¹⁰.

After ramping up to a 2025 high at the end of September, spot uranium fell back to USD 80 by the end of October, down -3.18% for the month¹¹.  Conversely though, URNM delivered another month of positive returns, up 8.26%, helped by strong growth of the largest holdings in the fund.

Cameco, the world’s largest publicly traded uranium producer and a 16% holding in URNM returned 23.38% for the month, contributing 3.82% despite the fall in uranium prices¹².  Cameco benefitted from its co-ownership of Westinghouse Electric Company – a designer and producer of nuclear reactors – after a deal was announced with the US Government.

The partnership relates to an estimated USD 80bn spend on new nuclear reactors as energy requirements soar due to the massive consumption by AI.  Data centres supporting artificial intelligence are projected to consume multiples of today’s electricity usage, with Bloomberg NEF estimating that power consumption from such US data centres will double by 2035¹³. 

Countries around the world are increasingly turning to nuclear power as a dependable, low-carbon solution to bridge the projected energy gap – a long-term tailwind for the uranium producers held by URNM.

Source: Morningstar. As at 31 October 2025. Past performance is not an indicator of future performance of any index or fund. All performance figures quoted in AUD.

Worst:

Technology was the weakest performing Australian equity sector in October due to a combination of unfavourable macro conditions and sharp declines in the share prices of major players in the sector.

ATEC was impacted particularly hard by the high inflation data and resulting delay of further RBA rate cuts as the S&P/ASX All Technology Index (which ATEC aims to track) has a forward P/E close to 60x, compared to 21x for the S&P/ASX 200 Index¹⁴.  This makes ATEC inherently more sensitive to inflation and rate cut expectations, contributing to the fund’s underperformance in October.

Regarding stock-specific performance: the highest-profile event was ASIC’s raid of WiseTech Global’s Sydney office.  ASIC is investigating whether co-owner Richard White and three other employees engaged in selling down stock during a blackout period ahead of publishing financial results¹⁵.  WiseTech shares fell by more than 23% in October.  Given the size of the company, this detracted -2.24% from ATEC’s returns in October.

Gold prices were volatile in October as prices climbed to all-time highs of USD 4,358 per ounce on 20^th, before correcting back to USD 4,004 by month end.  21^st October saw the largest single day drop in five years.  Overall, prices still finished the month up by 3.77%¹⁶.

For gold miners, it was the downward price movement which was most impactful, with 36 of the 49 stocks held by MNRS falling, and the fund finishing the month -5.88% down overall.

This ‘correction’ in the second half of the month appears to be just that, after gold was overbought and prices became heavily inflated.  Anecdotally, ABC Bullion in Sydney’s CBD had queues hundreds of people long on a daily basis, as individuals became desperate to buy in despite the elevated prices.

Fundamentally, gold remains attractive as central banks continue to buy – gold has now surpassed the share of US Treasuries in central bank reserves for the first time since 1996.  Morgan Stanley have revised their 2026 forecast upwards to USD 4,400¹⁷, which if realised is likely to support share prices of the gold miners held by MNRS.

‘Uptober’ did not turn out how crypto investors expected, with both Bitcoin and Ethereum down for the month.  The US Government lockdown in the first half of October caused risk-off sentiment, contributing to the decline in cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum.

The major catalyst however was Donald Trump’s tweet on 10^th October, threatening a 100% tariff on Chinese imports.  This led to the largest crypto selloff in history, which was exacerbated by the mass liquidation of leveraged positions, causing a snowball effect and further falls in the price until eventually Ether had dropped by 12.2%.  Bitcoin was down by more than 14%¹⁸.

To the crypto market’s relief, both Ethereum and Bitcoin remained relatively stable for the rest of the month.  However, early November has seen some further selling from ‘whale’ investors (wallets with over 10,000 Bitcoin) selling coins that have been dormant for years¹⁹.

*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.

Investing involves risk. The value of an investment and income distributions can go down as well as up. Before making an investment decision you should consider the relevant Product Disclosure Statement and Target Market Determination (available at www.betashares.com.au) and your client’s particular circumstances, including their tolerance for risk, and obtain financial advice.

An investment in CRYP should be considered very high risk. CRYP provides focused exposure to companies involved in servicing crypto-asset markets or which have material investments in crypto-assets. Crypto-assets are highly speculative in nature and companies with significant exposure to crypto-asset markets can be expected to have a very high level of return volatility. An investment in CRYP should only be made by investors who fully understand the features and risks of such companies or after consulting a professional financial adviser, and who have a very high tolerance for risk and the capacity to absorb a rapid loss of some of their investment. CRYP will not invest in crypto assets directly, and will not track price movements of any crypto assets. For more information on risks and other features of CRYP, please see the Target Market Determination (TMD) and Product Disclosure Statement, available at www.betashares.com.au.

An investment in QETH should be considered extremely high risk and should only be considered by informed investors seeking a very small allocation (5% or less) to an extremely high volatility investment. Ethereum is subject to certain risks not associated with traditional asset classes such as equities. It is supported by new technologies and traded and valued in largely unregulated markets. Ethereum is not backed by any government or central bank and could have little or no value in the future.  There are risks associated with an investment in QETH including volatility risk, digital asset price risk, currency risk, political, legal and regulatory risk, immutability risk and digital asset custody risk. An investment in the QETH is not suitable for all investors and should only be made by investors who fully understand the features and risks of Ethereum or after consulting a professional financial adviser, and who have an extremely high tolerance for risk and the capacity to absorb a rapid loss of some or all of their investment.

Betashares Capital Limited (ABN 78 139 566 868, AFSL 341181) (Betashares) is the issuer of the Betashares Funds. This information is general only, is not personal financial advice, and is not a recommendation to invest in any financial product or to adopt any particular investment strategy. You should make your own assessment of the suitability of this information. It does not take into account any person’s financial objectives, situation or needs. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Investments in Betashares Funds are subject to investment risk and investors may not get back the full amount originally invested. No assurance is given that any of the companies mentioned above will remain in the relevant fund’s portfolio or will be profitable investments. Any person wishing to invest in a Betashares Fund should obtain a copy of the relevant Product Disclosure Statement and Target Market Determination from www.betashares.com.au and obtain financial and tax advice in light of their individual circumstances.

Future results are inherently uncertain. This information may include opinions, views, estimates and other forward-looking statements which are, by their very nature, subject to various risks and uncertainties. Actual events or results may differ materially, positively or negatively, from those reflected or contemplated in such forward-looking statements. To the extent permitted by law Betashares accepts no liability for any loss from reliance on this information.