ESG funds outperform Australian sectors
Managed funds which are aligned with environmental, social and governance principles have outperformed all Australian sectors over the last three years.
According to Rainmaker Information, ESG-aligned managed funds outperformed in all Australian sectors for the three years to August 2020.
The ESG sector emerged as the third best-performing sector overall with a median return of 6.3% p.a. across the three years. The best ESG fund was BetaShares Global Sustainability Leaders ETF which returned 23.5%.
This was better returns than income-focused Australian equities (0.8%), small-cap Australian equities (0.8%), Australian fixed income (4.1%) and large-cap Australian equities (5.6%).
John Dyall, head of investment research at Rainmaker Information, said there was “clearly a thirst” among investors to align themselves with companies that followed ESG principles.
Top of the list overall was large-cap international equities which returned a median of 10.2% followed by growth assets which delivered 7%.
The top-performing fund overall was Lakehouse Small Companies fund which returned 29% over the three-year period.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
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