Six Aussie equity funds report positive returns for H1 2020
Only 2.6% of funds in the Australian equity sector, representing six funds, saw positive returns in the first half of 2020.
According to FE Analytics, within the Australian Core Strategies universe, there were 227 funds in the sector but only six had performed positively over the six months.
The Australian equity sector lost 9.5% over the six months, slightly better than performance by the ASX 200 which lost 10.4% over the same period. More than half of the funds in the sector saw double-digit losses during the first half of the year as a result of the market downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The best-performing fund in the sector was the APSEC Atlantic Pacific Australian Equity fund which returned 24% during the period.
This was followed by returns of 4.2% for Lincoln Australian Growth, 2.2% by Hyperion Australian Growth Companies and 1.7% for Perennial Private to Public Opportunities.
Meanwhile, BetaShares Australian Equities Bear Hedge returned 1% and BT Wholesale Partner Australian Shares Growth which returned 0.6%.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Acadian Australian Managed Volatility Equities fund lost 51%. This was, by far, the worst performance in the sector with the next worst-performing funds losing 20% which were Nikko AM Australian Share Wholesale and Legg Mason Martin Currie Real Income.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
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