While 2017 posted a fairly benign market environment for funds to succeed, 2018 was a different story, prompting Money Management to compare the performance of the top Australian small/mid cap funds across both years to see how they fared.
The top Aussie small/mid cap fund from 30 November 2016 to 30 November 2017 was the Macquarie Small Companies fund, which returned a massive 31.79 per cent for that time period.
Macquarie proved a strong manager that year with their Macquarie Australian Small Companies fund sitting second-top with 30.92 per cent.
OC’s Dynamic Equity fund sat third with 26.95 per cent followed by Ophir Opportunities with 26.86 per cent and Cromwell Phoenix Opportunities with 26.40 per cent.
But the big numbers pulled across 2017 were left behind in 2018, with the top fund, Perennial Value Microcap Opportunities, only returning 17.53 per cent (from 30 November 2017 to 30 November 2018).
Even the second best fund for that time period, Hyperion Small Growth Companies, only returned 9.66 per cent, which while is an improvement on its performance in 2017 (5.74 per cent returns), is an indication of how funds struggled to pull big numbers in 2018.
The top fund from 2017, Macquarie Small Companies, still sat in the top ten the following year at sixth position with returns of 7.59 per cent, and the Macquarie Australian Small Companies fund followed closely with 6.84 per cent.
The third-best performing fund in 2017, OC Dynamic Equity, took a hit the following year, returning just 1.59 per cent for that period.
The chart below tracks the performance of the funds from 30 November 2016 to 30 November 2018.
