Most managed funds reviewed by Morningstar generally experienced very positive returns for the March quarter, with many equities funds posting double digit gains and some small companies funds climbing more than 20 per cent.
Funds in the Australian equities large growth category averaged a return of 9.18 per cent, ahead of an index return of 8.58 per cent.
Out of the 46 smaller companies funds monitored, 30 performed better than the index return of 14.98 per cent.
In international equities, large growth funds averaged 11.23 per cent, but with a wider range of returns than that seen in Australian equities, and hedged strategies slightly outperformed unhedged.
Emerging markets funds returned 12.23 per cent, but did not outperform the index return of 12.90 per cent.
Listed property funds averaged a 6.81 per cent gain for the quarter, also just behind the index return of 7.14 per cent, but with a wide disparity between the best and worst funds.
Global listed property funds in the review returned 11.52 per cent on average – again, just behind an index return of 12.31 per cent.
Global infrastructure funds returned 5 per cent for the quarter, and alternative strategies comfortably outpaced their index yet still only returned 2.58 per cent.
The average Australian fixed interest fund returned slightly more than the UBS Composite Bond Index’s 0.78 per cent.
"Generally, strategies more exposed to credit than interest rate duration did well. Overall, gains from international fixed interest funds were slightly higher than from their Australian counterparts," Morningstar stated.
