F&C Investments’ FundWatch found that 4.7% of funds in the UK all companies sector had landed in the top quartile for the entirety of the past three years up to the end of July.
The IMA Japan sector was the next most consistent performer with 4.3% of funds being top quartile over the entire three years.
While 4.7% achieving this status may not sound a big proportion, the average for all sectors is only 2.3% the study found, reflecting the difficulty of maintaining consistent high performance across different stages of a business cycle.
Bond funds in particular have struggled to maintain top quartile performance consistently under changing market conditions, F&C said.
The most recent data for Q2 2014 paints a more positive picture however with all IMA bond sectors in positive territory.
On a Q2 2014 basis, global emerging markets was the top sector in the IMA universe, returning 4.9% overall. This represents a sharp reversal of fortunes from a loss of -2.4% in Q1.
“The UK all companies sector is one of the most popular amongst the UK investor community, so it is very pleasing to see it topping the leaderboard overall,” said Rob Burdett, co-head of multi-manager at F&C Investments.
“Beyond this, it would seem the East is best for above average consistency with the Japan, Asia Pacific ex-Japan and emerging markets sectors offering the most funds with above median performance over the last three years,” he added.”
Burdett also noted that it will be interesting to see if the strong performance of the emerging markets sector is this is the beginnings of a broader positive trend after several years of being out of favour.
