Eight leave Sanlam white list as Brexit bites and yields fall

The eight funds that have fallen out of the list of 14, include all three of January’s top performers, Unicorn UK Income, Chelverton UK Equity Income and Premier Monthly Income as well as the Evenlode Income and Rathbone Income funds both of which are no longer eligible having failed to meet the Investment Association’s sector yield requirements.

 In the case of Unicorn, Sanlam said, the fund has had a tough six months, currently fourth quartile over both 12 months and on a year-to-date basis.

“Its disappointingly large decline can be explained by its domestically focussed small to mid-cap bias which has underperformed the larger-cap company-focussed funds in the first half of this year. In spite of this, it is worth noting that the fund has had good long-term performance which has been evident by its prolonged position near the top of the White List for the last two years,” Sanlam said.

Another large faller, from the white list to the bottom of the grey list is Thhomas Moore’s SLI UK Equity Income Unconstrained Fun.

“The fund has consistently experienced the highest volatility in the study, given its unconstrained nature, with performance having been very strong in the last few years but particularly weak recently (specifically in June after the UK referendum).”

At the other end of the spectrum, the Troy Trojan Income Fund has taken top spot left vacant by Unicorn and, according to Sanlam is one of only ten funds in the study that produced a positive return for the month of June.

The highest climber in the list is the Franklin UK Equity Income Fund, which made the move up from the grey list and continues to demonstrate low volatility.

By comparison, there has been less movement at the bottom of the scale, in the firm’s black list.

“Laggards that have found themselves near the bottom of the Black List include the Scottish Widows UK Equity Income Fund, which yet again comes in at last place, the HSBC Income Fund and a new entry to the study, the Man GLG UK Income Fund,” Sanlam said.