Which funds made the best start to 2019?
Looking back to the start of last year, it was the Australia geared sector that led the way in Q1 2019.
According to FE Analytics, within the Australian Core Strategies universe, the top five sectors were Australian geared equities (16.76%), North America equities (13.29%), global property (12.43%), specialist equities (11.94%), and Asia Pacific ex Japan equities (11.59%) for Q1 2019.
Top five best performing sectors over the three months to 29 March 2019
The best performing fund in the Australian geared sector was BetaShares Geared Australian Equity Hedge which returned 24.17% in Q1 2019.
Rounding out the top five was Ausbil Australian Geared Equity (23.92%), CFS Wholesale Geared Share (22.71%), OnePath Wholesale Geared Australian Shares Index Trust B (21.24%) and CFS Acadian Wholesale Geared Australian Equity (20.89%).
In its quarterly report from March, Ausbil said the first quarter of 2019 saw the Australian equity market deliver its best performance since September 2009.
“Challenging conditions continue to temper optimism, and global downside risks remain,” it said.
“Lower interest rate expectations contrast strong quarterly performance within commodity and equity markets.
“Domestically, small-cap stocks (S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries Accumulation Index: +12.6%) outperformed the large-cap (S&P/ASX 200 Accumulation Index: +10.9%) and mid-cap (S&P/ASX MidCap 50 Accumulation Index: +9.8%) stocks.”
Top five Australian geared equity funds over the three months to 29 March 2019
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