As with their open-ended counterparts, investment companies with an Indian and Chinese focus outpaced other listed funds in NAV terms, according to quarterly data from Morningstar.
India Capital Growth led the pack, ending the quarter with 23% higher NAV.
Fellow India-focused funds JPMorgan India and Aberdeen New India were also within the top-ten investment companies of Q1, with NAV returns of 17.6% and 16.1%, respectively.
“In India, it’s more about the politics really,” QuotedData head of research James Carthew said.
While the Indian government’s latest ‘demonetisation’ experiment caused a short-term disruption, long-term he thinks it will be good news for investors in the region.
The India Capital Growth fund was particularly nimble because of its small and mid-cap bias, which “may be a bit more entrepreneurial and dynamic,” said Carthew.
Funds with a Chinese bias like Schroder Asia Pacific, which held 24.3% in Chinese equities at 28 February, and Fidelity China Special Situations also saw a boost in the value of their assets.
“In China, there are encouraging signs that growth is picking up a little, with the PMI higher than expected. That has encouraged all kinds of growth in Asia.”
There were few common themes uniting the worst-performing investment companies of the quarter, said Carthew, but their individual investments
The performance of EF Realisation (-27.6% NAV) was due to weakness in the share price of one of its biggest investment, Lone Star Resources, for instance.
British & America (-3.0% NAV), on the other hand, was dragged down by “swings in the share price” of its largest holding, biotech company Geron.
