As we recently discovered which Australian equity funds had hit the top quartile for the first time since the global financial crisis, Money Management thought it would be apt to use data from FE Analytics to determine which equity funds had hit the bottom quartile for the first time in a decade.
The only Australian equity fund to hit the bottom quartile for the first time since 2009 was the Perpetual Pure Value Share fund, which, until 2018, enjoyed a mostly top quartile performance.
The 12 months after 31 December 2008 saw the fund return a whopping 76.22 per cent, and despite a drop to 26.16 in the following 12 months, it remained in the top quartile.
It did so for the next three years, and though it dropped to the third quartile in 2014, it rose back up to top quartile in the following year.
It only just hit the bottom quartile in the 12 months to 30 November 2018 with returns of -12.55 per cent.
Outside of Australia, three global funds similarly saw their first bottom quartile position in a decade, with BT Classic Investment BT Split Growth, CFS FirstChoice Acadian Wholesale Geared Global Equity and Pendal Core Global Share faltering in 2018.
Whilst BT never actually hit the top quartile, it maintained a consistent second-and-third quartile position for all years until 2018, where it dropped to the bottom with -3.14 per cent returns.
The CFS fund enjoyed six years in the top quartile, ending 2017 on a high with 34.67 per cent returns but dropping to -1.4 per cent returns in the 12 months to 30 November 2018.
Pendal’s Core Global Share fluctuated between top and second quartiles, dropping to third quartile in 2016 and 2017, and hitting bottom in 2018 with -0.67 per cent.
No Asian funds sitting between first and third quartile over each year until 2018 dropped to the bottom quartile, but one emerging market fund, the Russell Emerging Markets fund, hit bottom after returning -9.26 per cent last year.
The fund returned a massive 42.53 per cent in 2009 putting it straight in the top quartile, only to drop to second for the next four years, and place second again last year with 24.79 per cent.
