FE said the Axa offering suffered during the first half of the year due to the market rotation from medium-sized growth companies to large value stocks while there were also performance concerns over the Artemis fund.
Other large funds to dropped included the Schroder UK Dynamic Smaller Companies fund, which FE said struggled when it became too large, the Jupiter European Special Situations fund and the Invesco Perpetual Income and Growth fund.
FE‘s in-house analysts said they ‘took a bullish stance’ following the biannual review.
On the positive side of things there were new additions as well as cuts. ‘Aggressive funds’ such as the Old Mutual UK Dynamic Equity fund and the Standard Life Investments UK Equity Unconstrained fund were brought into the fold.
The Fidelity Global Special Situations fund’s strategy impressed FE’s analyst so that was another to make the grade, along with the Standard Life Investments Equity Unconstrained fund which ‘adds diversity’ with a mid-cap focused strategy, the JPM Europe Dynamic ex UK fund and the Standard Life Investments Global Advantage fund.