Which were the best and worst performing funds in July?

Smaller company funds were the best performing on the market in July, as the cheapest assets on the market finally started to bounce back.

North American Smaller Companies funds returned 5.3 per cent throughout the month, followed closely by Property (Other) at 4.5 per cent and UK Smaller Companies at 4.3 per cent.

The dominance of small companies was so clear that nine of the top ten fastest growing funds during the month were smaller companies or mid cap funds, with the only exception being the Lazard Global Listed Infrastructure Equity (+7.9 per cent).

“If you look to the wider top 20/30 funds, there are many more smaller companies funds (UK and US) to be found,” said Ben Yearsley, director of Fairview Investing.

Things were similar in the worst performing funds of the month, with the top ten dominated by one sector: Tech.

Seven of the bottom ten funds were tech funds, with the worst performing being the Liontrust Global Technology fund, losing 12.5 per cent. In fact, Liontrust had three funds in the bottom ten.

The entire tech fund sector as a whole lost 5.7 per cent on average.

“China was the other notable theme last month with many Chinese equities funds having a tough time,” noted Yearsley, including the SVS Aubrey China fund that declined over 10 per cent.

Other weakly performing sectors included Global Emerging Markets (-2.7 per cent), Asia Pacific ex Japan (-2.5 per cent) and Latin America (-1.2 per cent).

Investment trusts performer very similarly to other funds, with three of the five best performing categories being smaller companies: North American (+12.3 per cent), UK(+8.5 per cent), and Global (+7.9 per cent)

“Downing Strategic Micro Cap officially topped the tables with a gain of 40% however that’s slightly illusory as the trust is winding up and paying back capital to shareholders,” Yearsley noted.