Overseas funds dominate 2016 top performers

This year has seen many a surprise—probably far more than any of us would’ve expected—as Brexit, Trump’s US presidency and Italy’s failed referendum all went in the ‘wrong’ direction to how the bookies were betting.

All in all though, global markets seemed to shake off the shocks. We had a post-presidential election rally in US stock markets, the FTSE 100 broke record highs after the Brexit vote and Europe’s equity and bond markets have been propped up throughout the year by the European Central Bank’s ongoing intervention.

In terms of top performing Elite Funds in 2016, BlackRock Gold & General finished first, with a return of 58.85%. This is hardly surprising given gold equities’ stellar start to the year off the back of a rising price in the commodity itself, as well as global uncertainty and a rush for ‘safe haven assets’.

Close behind in second spot was another specialist fund, Aberdeen Latin American Equity, which achieved returns of 56.40%. Emerging markets generally had a strong year prior to Trump’s election, bouncing back from a pretty terrible 2015. The Elite Rated Lazard Emerging Markets and M&G Global Emerging Markets also made it into our top ten for this year.

Many fund managers are concerned how emerging markets will fare under Trump and his “make America great again” pursuits. His first 100 days in office in the new year may start to give us some detail about his plans, but for now we are playing the waiting game. 2016, at least, has been a positive period.

Meanwhile our newly Elite Rated Hermes US SMID Equity delivered a 43.95% return. Comparing all of our top performers to the FTSE All Share and MSCI World indices (in the table below) shows just how well these funds were actively managed in one of the most turbulent years for markets since the global financial crisis of 2007.

*FE Analytics, Elite Funds, total returns in GBP, 31/12/2015–21/12/2016