The top funds of H1 2024

Funds invested in technology and Turkey dominate the list of top-performing funds for the first half of 2024, according to data compiled from FE fundinfo.

Investment funds tracking the Turkish stock market were among the best-performers for the first six months of the year as runaway inflation sent local investors flocking to the stock market to protect their savings.

The Turkish equity market has boomed despite inflation recently reaccelerating to 75% in May. The MSCI Turkey index has managed to notch up 36.5% year-to-date in US dollar terms.

However, technology was the more dominant theme for the first half of 2024. 10 of the top-20 performing funds in H1 2024 were technology-focused.

These funds benefitted from the continued rally in technology stocks, especially large-cap US companies which are investing heavily into artificial intelligence (AI).

This has led to semiconductor firms again leading the markets higher in 2024 after a blistering rally in 2023, on the back of continued demand for chips needed for AI compute.

Below are the top 30 performing funds for the first six months of the year*.

The BNP Paribas Turkey Equity strategy was the best performer in the list with a return of 50% year-to-date.

Run by Mustafa Kemal Ozmenm, this actively managed Turkish equity strategy has benefitted from its overweight to financials relative to its benchmark. Turkish banks have been beneficiaries of interest rates remaining in the 40% to 50% range this year.

The Turkish central bank recently stunned markets by unexpectedly hiking interest rates from 45% to 50% in March to combat reaccelerating inflation.

The second highest performer in the list was the Samsung Bloomberg Global Semiconductor ETF which tracks the top 20 semiconductor firms worldwide.

Its high concentration in the largest semiconductor stocks has been a major boost to its 41.1% return year-to-date.

Its top three holdings in Nvidia, Broadcom and TSMC make up almost half of the entire portfolio. These three stocks have rallied 158%, 51% and 62.9% year-to-date respectively.

Elsewhere among the top performers were a handful of technology funds, both passive and active.

The iShares S&P 500 Information Technology Sector UCITS ETF offered by BlackRock, for example, was up 28.9% year-to-date.

This passive ETF tracks a S&P market-cap-weighted technology index comprised of 67 of the largest US technology companies. Its high concentration (its top-10 account for 77% of the portfolio) in tech stocks has boosted its returns year-to-date.

One active technology strategy that featured in the list above was the Janus Henderson Global Technology Leaders fund with a 26.8% return for the period.

Managed by Graeme Clark, Alison Porter and Richard Clode, this strategy benefitted from its overweight positioning in US tech giants Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta, as well as its semiconductor holdings.

Aside from tech funds, there were some Asian and Indian equity funds, as well as a Japanese equity fund in the list.

The Alma Eikoh Japan Large Cap Equity strategy was the only Japanese strategy in the top-30 with a 23.7% return for the period.

Japanese stocks have continued to rally after a strong 2023 and this strategy managed to outpace the gains of its peers and the wider market.

Given the winners of the first six months of 2024 have been largely similar to the winners of 2023, it is unsurprising to see a momentum factor exchange traded fund (ETF) also in the list of top performers.

The iShares Edge MSCI World Momentum Factor UCITS ETF invests in global stocks with the highest momentum scores and weights them accordingly.

Since the best performing stocks have continued to keep on winning, this strategy performed well over the period with a 25.96% return.

*Returns were measured in US dollars. The data from FE fundinfo only considered funds that fall under the Singapore Mutual and Hong Kong Mutual equity sectors. Leveraged products were not included.