Given 2018 probably wasn’t the best year for Australian broad cap equities, with the last quarter rubbing salt in the wound, Money Management thought it would be apt to review the performance of those funds to see how those funds kicked off the new year.
It’s immediately clear Aussie broad caps got off to a good start, with the top fund for January (bar geared funds), the CBG Australian Equity fund, returning 6.25 per cent as compared to the top fund for January last year, DDH Selector Australian Equities, which returned 4.64 per cent.
The fund, which was also in the top quartile last year with returns of 1.90 per cent, also managed to outperform its benchmark, the S&P ASX 300, which returned just 3.83 per cent.
In general, the S&P ASX 300 was off to a better start in 2019 than it was in 2018, given it returned just 0.47 per cent in January last year. The sector average, 3.60 per cent, was also more than triple that of this time last year, which was 0.43 per cent.
In second position was the BetaShares Australian Ex-20 Portfolio Diversifier ETF, which returned 5.66 per cent, followed by consistent top performer, Lincoln Australian Growth, which returned 5.65 per cent.
The second and third-top funds returned over three per cent more than their 2018 counterparts, Macquarie Australian Shares and CFS Acadian Wholesale Australian Market Neutral, which returned 2.23 per cent and 2.25 per cent respectively.
Platypus Systematic Growth and Arnhem Australian Equity completed the top five for January, returning 5.46 per cent and 5.43 per cent respectively.
Most top quartile funds in January 2018 managed to retain their position this year, but CFS’ Acadian Wholesale Australian Market Neutral sat at the bottom of the bunch for the same period this year, returning just 0.54 per cent.
The chart below shows the performance of the top five funds in January 2019 as compared to the sector average and the S&P ASX 300.
