The equity funds topping their sectors for returns and risk
Money Management looks for equity funds that have been able to combine the best returns of their peer group with the lowest volatility.
Just 40 equity funds combined high returns with low volatility over recent years, Money Management research shows, highlighting the challenges in navigating choppy markets.
Our research looked at the three-year total returns and annualised volatility of 466 equity funds available for sale in the Australian market. We then filtered for those that were in the top quartile of their respective sectors for both metrics.
Of the 466 funds examined, 40 were among the best of their sector for returns and volatility over the past three years – a period that has seen the market rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic, the global re-opening and subsequent inflation, and the ongoing Russia/Ukraine conflict.
The ACS Equity – Global sector was home to the highest number of funds that were in the top quartile for both three-year total returns and volatility, with 13 of the 40 residing here.
These included Macquarie Arrowstreet Global Equity, Macquarie IFP Global Franchise, Ironbark Royal London Concentrated Global Share, Intermede Global Equities and AMP Capital Global Growth Opportunities.
ACS Equity – Australia funds also performed well in this research, with 10 of the 40 funds sitting in this sector. Among them are Fidelity Australian Equities, Alphinity Sustainable Share, IOOF MultiMix Australian Shares, Airlie Australian Share and Macquarie Australian Shares.
But there were four sectors where no funds managed to combine returns with low volatility over the past three years: ACS Equity – Asia Pacific ex Japan, ACS Equity – Australia Equity Income, ACS Equity – Europe and ACS Equity – Specialist.
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