Posted inHead To Head

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Barings versus Fidelity

FSA compares two Asean products: The Barings Asean Frontiers Fund and the Fidelity Asean Fund.
by Francis Nikolai Acosta

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The Barings and the Fidelity funds versus their benchmark index. Source: FE Analytics. In US dollars.

Performance

Ng pointed out that the Barings fund has been more volatile than both the Fidelity product and the index.

“If you look at 2018, for example, the Barings fund underperformed by a huge margin relative to the benchmark, and this year it has rebounded and performed better than the index and the Fidelity fund.”

Annual discreet calendar performance

Fund / benchmark

YTD 2019

 2018 2017 2016 2015

2014
Barings Asean Frontiers

9.89

 -13.17 31.09 5.23 -11.7

8.57
Fidelity Asean

7.23

 -7.27 26.53 4.84 -17.65

6.97
MSCI AC Asean Index

4.27

 -8.36 30.14 6.2 -18.35

6.42
Source: FE Analytics

 

Three-year annualised volatility

Fund / Index

Volatility

Sharpe ratio
Barings Asean Frontiers

11.78

0.08
Fidelity Asean

10.78

0.11
MSCI AC Asean Index

11.01

0.08
Source: FE Analytics

Ng said that the more concentrated portfolio of the Barings fund is a driver of the higher volatility.

Turning to the Fidelity fund, he said its more diversified portfolio has helped ease volatility relative to the index.. In addition, the previous manager’s investment style, which avoided huge off-benchmark bets, contributed to lower volatility.

 

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