Money Management looked at last year’s top quintile Australian small/mid-cap equity funds and data from FE Analytics showed five funds had taken 2018 in their stride and maintained their top position.
The Ophir High Conviction fund, the Macquarie Small Companies fund, the CFS MIF Future Leaders fund, the Fidelity Future Leaders fund and the AMP Experts’ Choice Small Companies fund maintained their impressive top quintile position from 2017 well into 2018.
The top performer of the five funds in 2017 was the Macquarie Small Companies fund, which returned 34.58 per cent last year and for the year to 31 July 2018 has returned 10.10 per cent, putting it in second place this year.
The relatively small fund is rated five Crowns and has a FE risk score of 111, placing it slightly above its benchmark, the S&P ASX Small Ordinaries Accumulation Index, in terms of risk.
In 2017, it sat well above the sector average, which was 17.50 per cent, and continued to do so over the first half of 2018 given the sector returned 4.36 per cent this year.
The Ophir High Conviction fund was the second best of the bunch in 2017 but became a front-runner this year with returns of 12.43 per cent for the first half of the year.
The fund, which has been co-managed by Andrew Mitchell and Steven Ng since inception in August 2015, is benchmarked against the S&P/ASX Mid-Small Index and invests in companies which typically “already have established business models with large or growing end markets and a clearly identifiable pipeline of further growth opportunities”.
CFS’ MIF Future Leaders fund is also well on track to keep up with its performance last year, with the fund producing around half the returns it produced in 2017 and only seven months into the year.
AMP’s four-Crown rated Experts’ Choice Small Companies fund has also almost hit the halfway mark this year with returns of 9.45 per cent as compared to 22.10 per cent last year.
Fidelity’s five-Crown rated Future Leaders fund led by James Abela has similarly kept up with its top quintile performance, producing returns of 8.08 per cent in 2018 as compared with 27.59 per cent last year.
The table below shows the performance of the five top-quintile funds in 2017 that have managed to maintain top quintile returns in 2018.
|
Fund |
Returns (%) 01/01/2017 – 1/1/2018 |
Returns (%) 01/01/2018 – 31/07/2018 |
|
Ophir High Conviction |
30.00 |
12.43 |
|
Macquarie Small Companies |
34.58 |
10.10 |
|
CFS MIF Future Leaders |
21.58 |
9.52 |
|
AMP Experts’ Choice Small Companies |
22.10 |
9.45 |
|
Fidelity Future Leaders |
27.59 |
8.08 |
The chart below shows the performance of the funds from 1 January 2017 until 31 July 2018 as against the S&P/ASX Mid Small Index and the ACS Equity – Australian Small/Mid Caps sector.
