An eclectic list this month, with some surprises.
The Top 10 has gone Brazilian (the dominant Latin American market), enjoying a sharp bounce this month. Whether it is of the “dead cat” variety only time will tell. It feels right just to watch from the sidelines.
Great to see Biotech coming through after our recent coverage, along with Healthcare.
The presence of some US funds might surprise you. In fact, these funds tend to have more in those biotech/health sectors, plus an overweight to those parts of the technology sector that didn’t get battered in the last month e.g. so little or no Facebook.
Gold funds had a horrible month. Yet looking at sentiment indicators, these have touched historical negative lows in the last few weeks. This suggests that there might be an opportunity in thee funds. But only short term, only a punt, and only for the fleet of foot.
The appearance of three Premier funds highlights why you should be wary of over-exposing to just one company, as funds will tend to have heavy over-laps – when one goes down, they all go down. For example, over the last month Shell and ICAP.
The L&G fund is very seat-of-pants – a genuine special situations fund. But it comes with this sort of volatility. The Marlborough fund is similar, in an even more illiquid area of the market, which can suffer even bigger moves over short periods.
The Japanese smaller companies sector is extraordinary because there are only 7 funds, but the differences between fund performances are extreme – and just when you think you’re in the best fund…bang!
Last and least, we have the now almost obligatory Absolute Return fund blowing up over one month. Yuk. City Financial Absolute equity in this instance.
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What's Hot
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Name
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Sector
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Last Month Performance
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Aberdeen Latin American Equity
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Specialist
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13.26
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Invesco Perpetual Latin American
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Specialist
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12.02
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Threadneedle Latin America
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Specialist
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11.50
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Stewart Investors Latin America
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Specialist
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8.58
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Baillie Gifford Global Discovery
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Global
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7.08
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Janus Henderson US Growth
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North America
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6.85
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Schroder Global Healthcare
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Global
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6.62
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AXA Framlington Biotech
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Specialist
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6.40
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Threadneedle American Select
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North America
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6.14
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Neptune European Opportunities
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Europe Excluding UK
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6.00
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What's Not
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Name
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Sector
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Last Month Performance
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City Financial Absolute Equity
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Targeted Absolute Return
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-6.15
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L&G UK Alpha Trust
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UK All Companies
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-5.07
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Invesco Perpetual Japanese Smaller Companies
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Japanese Smaller Companies
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-4.39
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Marlborough UK Micro Cap Growth
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UK Smaller Companies
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-2.79
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Premier Income TR
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UK Equity Income
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-2.59
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Premier Monthly Income TR
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UK Equity Income
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-2.57
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Premier Optimum Income TR
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UK Equity Income
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-2.48
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Investec Global Gold
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Specialist
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-2.11
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LF Ruffer Gold
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Specialist
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-2.11
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Barings Korea Trust
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Specialist
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-2.10
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FURTHER READING