Which Asian funds have stood the test of time?
Money Management has looked at the funds in the Asia Pacific ex Japan sector to see which ones have stood the test of time, producing consistently good returns over the last ten years.
Data from FE Analytics has put Fidelity’s Asia fund on top for the last ten, five, three and one-year periods, only dropping to second quartile across June to 31 July, with trade tensions affecting the China and emerging markets region the suggested cause.
Taking it back to ten years, the fund produced 10.32 per cent returns, lifting to 16.76 per cent across five years, 14.56 per cent across three years and jumping to 22.33 per cent across the year to 31 July.
The fund has a FE five-Crown rating and holds over three-quarters of its portfolio in the Pacific Basin and just 13.80 per cent in the Asia Pacific region.
It holds a heavy weighting to consumer products (25.24 per cent) followed by financials (21.62 per cent) and basic materials (19.85 per cent), and its top holdings are HDFC Bank, AIA Group, Kweichow Moutai, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and China Petroleum and Chemical Corp.
Schroder’s Asia Pacific fund matched Fidelity’s top quartile returns across ten, five and three-year periods, and BlackRock’s iShares Asia 50 ETF fund hit top quartile across five and three-year periods, but both funds dropped in rank across the year to 31 July.
While Platinum’s $4.5 billion Asia fund hit a high across ten and five-year periods, it dropped to third in more recent years and then bottom quartile for 2018.
The fund manager has a heavy weighting to financials (24.30 per cent), followed by telecommunications, media and technology (19.30 per cent), basic materials (13.70 per cent) and consumer products (8.60 per cent).
The fund’s monthly factsheet has determined that the recent dip in performance can be attributed to the fear of trade wars and policy mistakes in China, but the fund manager still saw “outstanding value” in many stocks in Asia.
The chart below shows the performance of the Fidelity, Schroder and Platinum funds across the five years to 31 July as compared to the peer-group average.
The year to date has seen some newcomers kick long-standing funds off their pedestal, with the Lakehouse Small Companies fund sitting top of the list with 43.06 per cent returns, followed by the Saville Capital Emerging Companies fund with 28.97 per cent returns and the SGH Tiger fund producing 26.63 per cent returns.
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