Morningstar has released managed fund performance league tables for the first quarter of 2013.
“The growth rally that started mid-way through last year continued into the first quarter of 2013, despite more jitters emanating from Europe,” said Morningstar Senior Research Analyst Julian Robertson.
“It was a challenging period for fund managers, as the average manager in the majority of categories failed to surpass benchmarks. Large- and small-cap Australian share fund managers were the main exception. Among fixed income funds, credit and emerging market exposures did better, although returns across the fixed interest spectrum were meagre.”
Key Findings
- Value-style fund managers did best on average among the large-cap Australian share funds, although most of their growth counterparts also outperformed the index. Well over half (68 of 102) of large-cap Australian share funds managed to beat the market in the first three months of 2013.
- Value-style options also came out on top in the Australian smaller companies category, the 9.43 percent quarterly average return easily outpacing the S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries Index’s 1.61 percent. The market’s result was hampered by the poor performance of small resources companies, which fell over the quarter. Only four of the 46 options in this category were unable to beat the index.
- The major international sharemarkets posted positive gains in the March quarter. Japan was a leading light in powering ahead 19.27 percent as measured by the Nikkei 225 Average Index, but the emerging markets lagged (down 2.03 percent). Only 26 of the 73 international share funds in this survey exceeded the benchmark and all styles underperformed on average.
- The March quarter was another excellent one for global listed property, which gained nine percent. Australian listed property recorded a less impressive but still reasonable gain of 5.3 percent. Domestic property trust funds struggled to beat their benchmark in general. Internationally, no manager beat its yardstick and on average lagged by over two percent.
- Returns from multi-sector growth funds were solid, posting an average return of 5.24 percent for the first quarter of 2013.