Over a 12-month-rolling period, 58% of Europe managers and 49% of emerging markets managers as well as 43% of US managers outperformed their benchmarks net of fees.
In February, active managers in all regions showed very good results. 68% of Europe managers outperformed their indices in February net of fees. In the US, 64% of the managers outperformed their respective indices net of fees and also 71% of emerging market managers were able to beat their benchmarks.
In Europe as well as in emerging markets, small caps performed better than large caps in February. As many of the active funds have an overweight exposure in small caps, the outperformance can be mainly explained by this factor. Sector wise, technology stocks performed well in all regions and contributed positively to the performance of many active funds. The outperformance of technology stocks had a positive effect on the US managers in particular. Last but not least, some of the active managers had a defensive positioning with an elevated cash quote, which helped in a correcting market.
Please find the full fundinfo Research News – March 2018 edition including a summary of manager meetings attached on the left.