Which equity funds ticked the metrics in 2018?
As we approach the end of the year, Money Management used FE Analytics to look at the equity funds which ticked the metrics of performance, volatility and Sharpe ratio.
Looking at the funds in the top quartile for returns, volatility and Sharpe ratio, it’s clear that the majority of equities were fairly volatile, and returns weren’t particularly high for those funds that maintained a low-ish volatility.
Mercer’s five FE Crown-rated Global Unlisted Infrastructure fund sat top of the chart with returns of 9.98 per cent whilst maintaining the lowest volatility at 3.48 per cent.
ETFs’ Global Core Infrastructure exchange-traded fund returned nine per cent with a volatility of 9.44 per cent, followed by Magellan’s Global fund which returned 8.82 per cent with a volatility of 11.09 per cent.
Two more infrastructure funds formed the top five, Atlas’ Infrastructure Australian Feeder and Macquarie’s True Index Global Infrastructure Securities, which returned 8.08 per cent and 6.81 per cent respectively, with a volatility of 8.64 per cent and 11.15 per cent respectively.
Global equities also dominated the top quartile for funds ticking the metrics, with exchange-traded funds like BetaShares Managed Risk Global Shares and BlackRock iShares Edge MSCI World Minimum Volatility ETF making the top 10.
Colonial First State also featured heavily in the top quartile across Australian equities, Asian equities, global and emerging market equities, with Stewart Investors’ Global Emerging Markets, Global Emerging Market Leaders, Worldwide Leaders and Worldwide Sustainability sitting within those.
Australian equity funds made only four appearances in the top quartile for box-ticking funds, with one fund, the Yarra Australian Real Assets Securities scraping into the top 20 with returns of 2.96 per cent at 11.23 per cent volatility.
Legg Mason’s Martin Currie Real Income fund featured in the top quartile, returning 1.74 per cent with a volatility of 9.73 per cent, as did AllianceBernsteins Managed Volatility Equities and CFS’ Acadian Wholesale Australian Market Neutral funds, which returned 1.81 per cent and -0.22 per cent respectively, with volatilities of 10.53 per cent and 5.02 per cent respectively.
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