Which funds were upgraded to 5 Crowns?
There has been a 47% decline in the number of funds receiving a 5 Crown rating, falling to 136, while no fund was upgraded from 1 Crown to 5 Crowns.
Under the FE fundinfo Crown Rating methodology, the top 10% of funds were awarded 5 Crowns, so the low volume of 5 Crown funds reflected the difficulties firms had in achieving performance during a volatile stockmarket.
Some 43 of these funds were upgraded from a previous rating while nine received their first rating and the remainder had maintained a 5 Crown rating. There were no funds in this edition which were upgraded from 1 Crown to 5 Crowns compared to seven funds in the previous edition.
There were three sectors within the Australian Core Strategies universe which saw six funds upgraded or receive a debut 5 Crown rating. The sectors were Australian small and mid-cap equities, global equities, and global bonds.
The global bond space saw the biggest improvements with Colchester Global Government Bond N being upgraded from 2 Crowns to 5 Crowns, Russell Global Bond, Colchester Global Government Bond A and I upgraded from 3 Crowns and IPAC SIS – International Fixed Interest Strategy No 2 upgraded from 4 Crowns. The Colchester Emerging Markets Bond was a new entrant at 5 Crowns.
In the Australian small and mid-cap equity space, SGH Emerging Companies, UBS Microcap, Pendal MicroCap Opportunities, Macquarie Australian Emerging Companies and DMP Australian Small Caps Trust were upgraded from 4 Crowns while Bennelong Emerging Companies was a new entrant. The sector saw 17% of its funds receive a 5 Crown rating, up from 11% in the previous edition.
Lastly, the global space saw Forager International Shares increased from 3 Crowns, Evans and Partners International, Zurich Investments Global Growth Share, AMP Capital Global Growth Opportunities and Pengana High Conviction Equities all upgraded from 4 to 5 Crowns while Lakehouse Global Growth was a new entrant.
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