On a three-year basis at the end of October, the same three China funds from the previous month topped the ranking of the best performing funds available for sale in Hong Kong or Singapore, across all fund categories, according to data from FE. They are the Allianz China A-Shares Fund, the Schroder China Equity Alpha Fund again top the ranking and the Hang Seng China A Industry Top Index ETF.
Top three-year performers
| Fund | Three-year return in US dollars |
| Allianz China A-Shares | 121.17% |
| Schroder China Equity Alpha | 97.67% |
| Hang Seng China A Industry Top Index ETF | 95.33% |
Data: FE, cumulative performance in US dollars, on 31 October 2017
Chinese equity was not, however, the best performing fund category. Japanese small- and mid-cap equity funds registered for sale in Hong Kong performed best, delivering a 49.8% median return, compared to the average of 41.9% for Chinese equity.
The Chinese equity category of SFC-registered funds includes 103 names with a far greater dispersion of returns than the other categories. There are only 11 Japanese small- and mid-cap equity funds.
Data: FE, 31 October 2017, return in US dollars
Top one-year performers
On a one-year basis, the Old Mutual UK Smaller Companies Focus Fund, which was at the top of the list in September, was joined by two Chinese equity funds, the EI Sturdza Strategic Panda Fund and the BCM Vitruvius Greater China Equity Fund.
| Fund | One-year return in US dollars |
| Old Mutual UK Smaller Companies Focus | 76.02% |
| EI Sturdza Strategic China Panda | 61.82% |
| BCM Vitruvius Greater China Equity | 60.51% |
Data: FE, performance in US dollars, on 31 October 2017
The superb performance of China equity funds cannot be simply attributed to similar stock picks, as they differ among the top performing funds, in what can be interpreted as the case of a “rising tide that lifts all boats”. The EI Sturdza fund is heavy on information technology stocks such as Tencent, Alibaba and Sunny Optical Tech, and is overweight in the consumer discretionary sector. The BCM Vitruvius holds many consumer non-cyclicals among its top 10 holdings, in particular education, automotive and the alcohol producer Kweichow Moutai.
The top performing funds on the three-year basis, also have only two names in common among their top 10 holdings: Ping An Insurance and the Midea Group, while the remaining holdings differ for each fund.
The bottom
The bottom of the monthly ranking did not change in October, with the Castlestone Aliquot Precious Metals Fund, a passive product, still topping the list. The mixed-asset hedge fund Odey Swan and the euro-denominated UBS CMCI Oil ETF continue to linger at the bottom.
Bottom three-year performers
| Fund | Three-year return in US dollars |
| Castlestone Aliquot Precious Metals | -64.34% |
| Odey Swan | -57.08% |
| UBS ETF (CH) CMCI Oil ETF | -53.95% |
Data: FE, cumulative performance in US dollars, on 31 October 2017
Bottom one-year performers
The Castlestone Precious Metals fund heads the list of the worst performers on a one-year basis as well, joined by the Odey Swan hedge fund and the managed futures and arbitrage strategy, the Magma Fund, managed by Apollo Multi Asset Management.
| Fund | One-year return in US dollars |
| Castlestone Aliquot Precious Metals | -37.70% |
| AMAM The Magma | -26.07% |
| Odey Odyssey | -21.95% |
