Share fund managers up in February
Australian share fund managers posted generally positive results in February, returning on average two per cent for the month, according to Morningstar’s study.
This meant the median Australian share manager was up 20.4 per cent over the year to February, but was behind the S&P/ASX 300 index’s 22 per cent.
Long-term annualised returns form the median manger were 7.3 per cent, 11.6 per cent and 5.6 per cent over the three, five and 10-year period respectively.
Allan Gray (38.8 per cent) was named the top-performer across Australian share strategies, followed by AB Australian Value (31. 4 per cent) and Maple-Brown Abbott (30.6 per cent).
The study also confirmed that global share strategies lagged Australian shares, with the median manager in this category returning 12.6 per cent on an unhedged basis.
Orbis (25.8 per cent) was named the best-performing global share fund, and was followed by Platinum (20.8 per cent) and Johnston (20.2 per cent), respectively.
According to Morningstar, Folkestone Maxim was the Australian property securities category leader with 13.7 per cent while the median for this category stood at 9.8 per cent over the year and was above the index’s 7.9 per cent.
As far as growth assets were concerned, Australian listed property was the best-performing class (4.1 per cent), followed by global listed property (3.2 per cent), Australian equities (2.2 per cent) and global equities (1.4 per cent).
The standout sectors in February included consumer staple (six per cent), financials (4.1 per cent) and healthcare (3.9 per cent).
Poor-performing sectors included resources (-3.4 per cent), materials 9-3.2 per cent) and telecommunications services (-3.1 per cent).
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