Money Management, using FE Analytics, has looked at the funds in the Australian equities sector with an ethical or sustainable investment focus to see who’s outperforming the S&P ASX 200 index.
Out of the 16 funds in the ACS Equity – Australia sector with an ethical investment focus, just under half (43.7 per cent) managed to outperform the benchmark, which returned 4.29 per cent.
The table below shows the funds in the ACS Equity – Australia sector with an ethical investment focus as determined by FE Analytics and their performance for the period of 1 January 2018 to 30 June 2018.
|
Name |
Performance (%) 1 January – 30 July 2018 |
|
Alphinity Sustainable Share ATR in AU |
8.64 |
|
AMP Responsible Investment Leaders Australian Share ATR in AU |
5.97 |
|
BetaShares Australian Sustainability Leaders ETF ATR in AU |
5.36 |
|
UCA Funds Management Uniting Ethical Australian Equities Trust ATR in AU |
4.96 |
|
AMP Capital Sustainable Share C ATR in AU |
4.51 |
|
UBS IQ MSCI Australia Ethical ETF ATR in AU |
4.51 |
|
BlackRock Concentrated Total Return Share E1 ATR in AU |
4.46 |
|
S&P ASX 200 TR in AU |
4.29 |
|
Mercer Socially Responsible Australian Shares ATR in AU |
4.05 |
|
Pendal Ethical Share ATR in AU |
3.91 |
|
Pendal Sustainable Australian Share ATR in AU |
3.86 |
|
Franklin Templeton Australian Equity I ATR in AU |
2.53 |
|
Australian Ethical Australian Shares ATR in AU |
1.26 |
|
Onepath Wholesale Sustainable Investments Australian Share Trust ATR in AU |
0.59 |
|
Perpetual Wholesale Ethical SRI ATR in AU |
0.27 |
|
Maple-Brown Abbott Responsible Investment ATR in AU |
0.22 |
|
Wisdom Australian Equities ATR in AU |
-4.43 |
The top performing fund, Alphinity Sustainable Share, returned 8.64 per cent for the first half of the year, followed by AMP’s Responsible Investment Leaders Australian Share, which returned 5.97 per cent and BetaShares’ Australian Sustainability Leaders ETF, which sat just below with 5.36 per cent.
Alphinity’s three FE Crown-rated fund, led by manager Johan Carlberg, holds a portfolio of Australian stocks that have been screened by socially responsible features, and aims to outperform the benchmark over rolling five-year periods.
AMP’s Responsible Investment Leaders Australian Share fund is influenced by negative screens which exclude tobacco, nuclear power, armaments, gambling, alcohol and pornography, and aims to provide a total return (income and capital growth) after costs and before tax, above the fund’s performance benchmark on a rolling five-year basis.
Two of the seven funds that outperformed the index are exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which suggests an active manager suits responsible investors aiming to still produce returns exceeding the index.
Forty-three per cent of funds (106 of 246 funds) without an ethical investment focus in the Australian equities sector managed to outperform the index, with the top performing fund, Bennelong Australian Equities, returning 15.93 per cent for the year to 30 June.
The chart below shows the performance of the top five ethical Australian equity funds as compared to the S&P ASX 200 index for the six months to 30 June 2018.
