Three at the top
An investor in possession of a crystal ball three years ago would have done very well by the end of April 2017, if he or she had bought India equity funds.
Three India equity funds occupy the top spots in FSA‘s ranking of funds available for sale in Hong Kong and Singapore by the three-year return.
| Fund | Three-year return, annualised, in USD |
| Kotak India Mid Cap | 39.0% |
| Nomura India Equity | 30.9% |
| JP Morgan India Smaller Companies | 29.1% |
Data: FE, as of 30 April 2017
This is largely thanks to the stellar performance of Indian equities since December 2016. The MSCI India Index grew by 28% since then. (See the chart.)
One-year period
Because of this, India funds place at the top of the rankings on a one-year basis as well, with SLI Indian Equity Midcap Opportunities being the champion, having delivered 65.01%.
In addition, investors would have been well-served by investing in Market Vectors Coal ETF in early 2016. Listed as KOL in the US, but available for sale in Singapore, it delivered 58.5% in the last 12 months and more than 140% since coal indices bottomed out in the early January 2016.
The bottom three
On the flipside, investing in precious metals and energy brought the biggest losses in the last three years. A UBS oil ETF listed in Switzerland, denominated in euros, and available for sale in Singapore, lost 25.5%, annualised, in the last three years, mostly due to the drop in oil prices in the second half of 2014 and throughout 2015.
| Fund | Three-year return, annualised, in USD |
| Castlestone Aliquot Precious Metals | -29.7% |
| UBS (CH) ETF CMCI Oil SF | -25.5% |
| Schroder ISF Global Energy | -22.4% |
Data: FE, as of 30 April 2017
Castlestone Aliquot Precious Metals dropped by 66.9% (29.7% annualised), on a relatively constant downward slope, while gold itself lost only 5.64% in the same three-year period.
Schroder ISF Global Energy severely underperformed its peers, losing 52.18% over the last three years, compared to the 25.7% average decline in the sector.
One-year period
The Castlestone Aliquot Precious Metals Fund would have been a bad bet a year ago as well, as it lost 35.1% during the year.
Odey Swan, the long-short fund managed by Crispin Odey, described by FE Trustnet as “one of the most notorious and respected hedge fund managers of the past few decades”, had a very bad few years, losing 19.9% annualised on a three-year basis and 28.15% on the one-year basis as of 30 April.
DB X-Trackers short ETFs, tracking DAX, EuroStoxx 50 and FTSE 100 also rank at the bottom by annual returns, as the underlying indices rose with Europe’s stock markets.
