Japanese and emerging market equity funds were last year's top performers, with the UK All Companies sector down from the top spot. The top performer was the Melchior Japanese Opportunities fund for Dalton Strategic Partnership, which gave a return of 88% over the 12 months. Japanese funds run by Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, Legg Mason, Invesco and Neptune also feature in the top ten.
The highest performing UK fund was New Star IK Strategic Income in 123rd position returning 37.5%. Corporate Bonds performed the worst, with Threadneedle's European Corporate Bond being the worst performing retail portfolio, down by 0.88%. The average out of 1,699 funds in the Investment Management Association's Index was a 20.83% rise over the year.
Our view
We have used both these sectors as "satellite" funds rather than clients main core holdings.