Previously unrated due to a lack of three-year track record, Neil Woodford’s flagship fund jumped straight to the top of the pile in FE’s latest adjustment of its crown ratings.
BlackRock Asia Special Situations, Kames Diversified Monthly Income, T. Rowe Price Asian Opportunities Equity and T. Rowe Price Frontier Markets Equity were also among the 11 previously unrated funds to receive a top five-star rating alongside Woodford.
FE rates all funds with a three-year history on their performance in the aim of making the market more accessible and rebalances the ratings every six months.
The latest rebalance saw IA global sector funds awarded the highest number of five crowns, closely followed by the specialist sector and the Europe Ex UK sector.
However, no global equity income, short-term money market or UK gilt fund received five crowns and only 5% of the sterling strategic bond and 7% of the sterling corporate bond sectors achieved the top mark.
Rob Gleeson, head of FE Research, said: “It has been an eventful six months both economically and politically since our last rebalance and markets have continued to be difficult for managers to predict.
“From a sector perspective, the latest rebalance shows a similar story to January’s FE Fund Crowns. Managers are generally finding fertile ground in more specialist, less researched industries which is where active management is widely believed to pay dividends.
“Funds that are looking for higher yields to boost returns are struggling in the low-rate environment, and the additional uncertainty around a possible rate rise is also being felt most acutely by them.”
FE said 317 funds are now five-crown rated.
Old Mutual Global Investors has the most funds rated with five crowns with 14 making the cut, FE revealed.
Fidelity, Janus Henderson and T. Rowe Price each have 11 five-crown rated funds and Jupiter Asset Management has 10.
However, 86 funds lost two or more crowns in the latest rebalance.
Four funds lost their five-crown status entirely and dropped to a rating of just one, these were the Consistent Unit Trust, Fidelity Global Industrials, HC Charteris Gold and Precious Metals and Standard Life Investments Enhanced Diversification Growth.
