As Q1 of 2019 has come to a close, Money Management looked at the performance of Australian equity funds to see whether funds were still feeling the after-effects of Q4 last year, but data from FE Analytics shows it’s a distant memory.
Last year’s fourth quarter saw the S&P ASX 300 return -7.91 per cent, with the average performance of Aussie equity funds sitting at -9.72 per cent.
But the year to 1 April paints a different story, with the S&P ASX 300 rallying to return 11.57 per cent in that period, and the average performance of Aussie equities similarly clawing back to 10.27 per cent.
To put it into perspective, the worst performing fund in Q4 2018, the BlackRock Australian Share fund, returned -20.79 per cent, while the worst performing fund in Q1 this year, the Ellerston JAADE Australian Private Asset fund, returned zero per cent.
Looking now to the over-achievers, the top performing fund for the year to 1 April was the DDH Selector Australian Equities fund, which returned 16.79 per cent. CBG Australian Equities followed closely with 16.57 per cent, and DDH Selector’s High Conviction Equity fund trailed in third with 16.35 per cent.
These are interesting figures when compared to the top performing funds of Q4 last year, the BetaShares Australian Equities Bear Hedge fund, which returned 9.05 per cent, followed by the Legg Mason Martin Currie Real Income, which returned 0.81 per cent, and the Yarra Australian Real Assets Securities fund, which returned 0.63 per cent.
The chart below shows the performance of the S&P ASX 300 and the ACS Australian equity sector from 1 October 2018 to 1 April 2019.
