Chinese growth fuels strong performance in Asian equity funds in July | ||||
| by燙hristian Charest爘?9 Aug 07爘?E-mail Article to a Friend牋牋牋/>? | ||||
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Investment funds that focus on China, or that have significant exposure to that country, provided good returns to their unitholders in July, according to final performance data published today by Morningstar. But the story wasn't as rosy for most other asset classes, as only 24% of mutual and segregated funds in Morningstar's database made gains during the month. Morningstar tracks 14 funds (including multiple versions of distinct mandates) whose names contain the words "China" or "Chinese," and all of them had monthly returns that ranked near the top of our listings. The best performance within that group belonged to Talvest China Plus , which gained 12.6% in July and ranked 11th overall in Morningstar's retail universe. It was followed closely by Renaissance Talvest China Plus (which has an identical portfolio) with 12.5% and by BMO Greater China Class with 12.1%. Even the worst performing Chinese equity funds -- MIX China Opportunities Class and Investors Greater China C -- returned 7.4% each for the month, placing them in the overall top 40. All of these funds belong to the Specialty category and therefore don't receive Morningstar Ratings. The best performing fund category in July was Asia ex-Japan Equity, whose constituents collectively returned 5.3%. The best result among the 25 funds that make up this category belonged to the four versions of Fidelity Far East, which all gained 6%. As of March 31 (the latest date for which data is available) the fund allocated nearly three-quarters of its assets to Hong Kong, South Korea, China and Taiwan, four markets that produced strong returns last month. The second best performing category in July, as measured by the Morningstar Canada Fund Indices, was Precious Metals Equity. The 16 funds in that category produced returns that ranged from 7.1% for iShares CDN S&P/TSX Global Gold Index to 0.7% for Sprott Gold and Precious Minerals. The best overall performer in the Morningstar retail universe in July was the $70-million CI Global Opportunities, a hedge fund with a free-ranging mandate managed by Nandu Narayanan of Trident Investment Management. It rose 24.2%. According to a June 30 manager commentary posted on the CI Web site, the fund held "massive" short positions in the sub-prime credit sector, which has been hammered lately. Another CI fund with an identical mandate, CI Trident Global Opportunities, had the second best return with a 23.6% gain. The third best performer with a 21.7% gain was Horizons BetaPro Crude Oil Bull Plus A, another specialty fund whose mandate is to provide twice the return of an index that tracks the price of crude oil. Conversely, the worst performer by far was Horizons BetaPro Crude Oil Bear Plus A, whose strategy is the exact opposite; it lost 18.3% in July. U.S. Equity funds had a tough time last month, with only five of the category's 226 mutual funds and eight of its 214 segregated funds gaining ground. Furthermore, 12 of the 13 funds that managed to stay afloat were different versions of Dynamic Power American Growth ; the fund's base version was up 4.2%, while its various clones gained between 4.1% and 3.8%. The only other winning U.S. Equity fund was Lakeview Disciplined Leadership U.S. Equity, up 2%. At the bottom of the U.S. Equity category were nine versions of AIC American Focused , which posted losses ranging from 11.9% to 12.2%. With more than half its assets invested in U.S. financial services stocks, the fund took the full brunt of that sector's recent decline. Also near the bottom was another AIC-sponsored fund with significant exposure to financials, AIC Value , which lost 6.9%. Among funds with assets of $1 billion or more, the $1.66-billion Mackenzie Cundill Recovery Series C was the best performer with a one-month return of 4.1%, followed by the $1.98-billion Sprott Canadian Equity, up 3.5%, and the $1.54-billion Dynamic Power Canadian Growth , up 1.9%. The worst return in that group was posted by the $1.11-billion CI Value Trust Corporate Class , down 5.8%. Morningstar releases preliminary data on the Morningstar Canada Fund Indices a few days following each month end, including analysis of market factors behind various indices' performance during the month. Final data is available a week later. Below is a table of final data on July performance. |
Chinese growth fuels strong performance in Asian equity funds in
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