Despite a volatile market and investor sentiment towards UK equities being negative for large parts of the year, here are the top five funds UK investors favoured this year.
The list was compiled by retail investor platform BestInvest, owned by Tilney. The company also produces a ‘dog fund’ list of the worst performing funds which Fundeye will bring you in due course.
In top position is Terry Smith’s FundSmith Equity Fund, a no nonsense concentrated portfolio of quality mega-cap companies. His mantra of “buy good companies. Don’t overpay. Do nothing” seems to have paid off once again as the fund’s returns were in double digits despite turbulent market conditions.
In second spot was Lindsell Train Global Equity, run by industry stalwarts Nick Train and Michael Lindsell. The duo focus on cash-generative businesses across the globe, taking a long-term buy-and–hold approach. It differs from Smith’s fund as it has less of a focus on US equities, with a sizeable weighting to Japanese companies.
Third place is HSBC’s American Index, which as the name suggests is a US index tracker. Despite the October market correction, US president Donald Trump’s tax reforms combined with dollar strength has seen the S&P 500 perform well. Being an index tracker, the fund is cheap as well, with an annual fee of just seven basis points.
Fourth position is held by Liontrust Special Situations Fund. It may seem strange that fund focusing on UK equities gets such a high ranking but many UK listed companies are very international in nature and should not be seen as a bellwether for the domestic economy. It adopts a ‘moat’ investing policy, targeting companies that are hard to replicate therefore a barrier to entry for potential rivals.
Number five is Stewart Investors Asia Pacific Leaders, a fund which predominantly invests in large companies from the Asia Pacific region ex-Japan. Manager David Gait places a high emphasis on preservation of clients’ money and backing companies that are very transparent and shareholder friendly.
It should be noted that the above funds are ranked by BestInvest purchases and is not an indication of how they have performed, moreover how popular they have been with users of Tilney’s platform only.
