The jump sees the PFS Chelverton UK Equity Income Fund knocked into second place.
“Both funds have a focus on mid-sized and smaller companies, which has helped them outperform their generally larger company focused peer group, as larger companies continued to lag their smaller peers in the second half of the year,” Sanlam said adding: “In addition to benefiting from the smaller company tailwind, both funds are also in the top quartile of the study for income generated over the five year period.
The funds are ranked using seven different criteria based on performance, volatility and the income distributed, with the most recent period of performance receiving a greater weighting, Sanlam said.
The highest climber into the White List of outperforming funds is the Michael Clark-run Fidelity MoneyBuilder Dividend Fund, that had drifted into the Grey List, between the White List and the underperforming funds that populate the Black List.
The Evenlode Income Fund also re-entered the White list after falling out of the rankings for 6 months.
The Troy Trojan Income Fund was the other big mover, after a good performance in both 2014 and 2015.
At the other end of the scale, Stephen Message’s Old Mutual UK Equity Income Fund “experienced one of the more dramatic falls in our rankings since the last study” Sanlam said, dropping from the White List to the bottom half of the Grey List, as did Clive Beagles and James Lowen’s JOHCM UK Equity Income Fund.
But, it pointed out: “Despite the two funds underperforming the UK Equity Income sector over the year, both outperformed the broader UK equity market, demonstrating the resilience that the sector can provide.
In the Black List, the BlackRock UK Income Fund continues to languish, despite an improved performance under Mark Wharrier.
The other notable entry in the Black List, according to Sanlam was the Schroder Income Maximiser Fund, which sits at the top of the Black List, despite having the highest yield on offer of any fund in the study, having performed amongst the worst in the Income Study in 2015, and thus not making it into the Grey List, Sanlam said.
