Among the 1,172 open-ended funds analysed by Morningstar Direct, BlackRock’s BGF World Energy A2 Fund was the best-performing equity fund last year, with a return of 39.6%.
The runner-up was also a fund from BlackRock, the BGF Natural Resources Gr & Inc A2 USD Fund, with a return of 16.8%.
Overall, equity funds were the worst performing asset class in 2022, with an average annual return of -20.5% and only a few categories thriving.
Although equity funds posted the worst average return among all asset classes in 2022, they saw a strong rebound in November, according to Morningstar Direct data.
“It’s imperative to balance our equity exposure between the most attractively valued assets, such as communication services and China, along with more defensive, dominant companies underpinned by resilient business models and strong fundamentals, which can often be found in areas like healthcare, utilities and consumer staples,” said Bryan Cheung, Associate Director of Manager Research at Morningstar.
Nonetheless, only four out of 82 categories posted positive returns in US dollars during 2022, according to Morningstar, led by the energy sector (39.6%).
Average Fund Performance By Selective Morningstar Equity Funds Category
| Average Total Return – Full Year 2022 in USD | |
| Energy Sector Equity | 39.6% |
| Latin America Equity | 5.8% |
| Natural Resources Equity Sector | 4.5% |
| Brazil Equity | 3.9% |
| US Large-Cap Value Equity | -7.2% |
| Global Equity Income | -12.3% |
| Hong Kong Equity | -16.9% |
| Asia ex-Japan Equity | -22.9% |
| China Equity – A Shares | -30.6% |
| Sector Equity Technology | -37.5% |
| Emerging Europe Equity | -53.4% |
The Chinese stock market was hurt by the government’s adherence until recently to its zero-Covid policy, with A-shares, Greater China equity and China equity funds posting losses ranging from -24.3% to -30.6%.
The Hong Kong market, meanwhile, saw a return of -16.9%.
| Asset Class | Average Total Return – Full Year 2022 in USD | Average Total Return – Nov 2022 in USD | Average Total Return – Dec 2022 in USD |
| Equity | -20.5% | 12.2% | -0.3% |
