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The top performing funds and sectors of 2017’s first half

03 July 2017

FE Trustnet reveals the funds that made the highest returns during the first half of 2017, as Chinese and Asian equities strategies dominated the top 10.

By Rob Langston,

News editor, FE Trustnet

Funds investing in Chinese and Asian equities were among those posting the highest returns during the first half of 2017, FE Analytics data shows, while energy-focused funds were among the worst performers.

Developed markets continued to climb higher during the first half of the year albeit at a slower pace, but emerging markets, particularly in Asia, were more resilient.

Although the strongest performing sectors of the second quarter were focused on smaller companies in the UK and Europe, the best performer of the first half overall was the IA China/Greater China sector.

Indeed, the sector average total return for the first half of 2017 was 17.49 per cent, continuing its strong performance reported at the end of the first quarter of the year.

Source: FE Analytics

The second-best performing sector was the IA European Smaller Companies sector, which was up by 16.24 per cent.

The highest return in the IA China/Greater China sector during H1 came from Mike Gush and Sophie Earnshaw’s four crown-rated Baillie Gifford Greater China fund, which was up by 26.52 per cent.


Source: FE Analytics

The top 10 of the strongest performers featured two Chinese and two Asian equities funds. Two funds from the IA European Smaller Companies sector were also present, with the remainder comprised of specialist investment strategies.

However, the best performing fund of the first half was the five crown-rated Old Mutual UK Smaller Companies Focus, managed by Nick Williamson, which was up by 30.94 per cent. This pushed Baillie Gifford Greater China into second place overall.

The Neuberger Berman China Equity fund, managed by Green Court Capital Management’s Frank Yao and Lihui Tang, was the third-best performer with a return of 25.73 per cent.

The fourth best performer with a return of 24.17 per cent was Ollie Beckett and Rory Stokes’s Henderson European Smaller Companies fund. The Baillie Gifford Pacific fund overseen by Roderick Snell and Ewan Markson Brown rounds out the top five funds for the first half recording a gain of 24 per cent.

Although dominated by Chinese and Asian equities funds at the top end of performance tables, there were several other interesting strategies reporting a strong first half.

The JPM Turkey Equity fund was the best performer outside of the top two performing sectors during the first half of the year, with a return of 23.4 per cent. It was closely followed by the Polar Capital UK Absolute Equity fund (23.19 per cent) and the GS India Equity Portfolio (23.18 per cent).


At the other end of the performance table there were a couple of other significant trends.

Source: FE Analytics

The worst performing IA sectors were the UK gilts, with the IA UK Index-Linked Gilts sector down by 2.49 per cent as the average IA UK Gilts fund also recording a loss of 1.52 per cent.

However, energy funds dominated the worst performers on an individual fund level again at the end of the first half, as energy prices recorded double-digit declines in 2017.

The worst performer of the first half was the Lombard Odier Global Energy fund – managed by Pascal Menges and Umberto Patalano – which was down by 25.55 per cent. It was joined at the bottom by energy-related offerings from asset managers including Schroders, Investec, Guinness, BlackRock and Artemis.

Q1’s worst performer, the VT Craigshannoch Multi Strategy fund, again featured near the bottom of the pile at the end of the first half. It was the second-worst performing fund over the period, recording a loss of 24.5 per cent.

Despite the dominance of China and Asia funds at the top of the performance table, not all emerging markets-focused strategies performed well during the first half: after a standout year in 2016, Russian equities-focused strategies have struggled during the first half of 2017.

Double-digit losses were recorded by several Russian equities-focused funds, most notably the HSBC GIF Russia Equity fund – overseen by Douglas Helfer – which was down by 14.36 per cent in H1, after recording a 93.34 per cent gain in 2016. Pictet Russian Equities – up by more than 100 per cent last year – and JP Morgan Russia also recorded losses of more than 11 per cent during the first six months.

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Data provided by FE fundinfo. Care has been taken to ensure that the information is correct, but FE fundinfo neither warrants, represents nor guarantees the contents of information, nor does it accept any responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, omissions or any inconsistencies herein. Past performance does not predict future performance, it should not be the main or sole reason for making an investment decision. The value of investments and any income from them can fall as well as rise.