Over a 12-month-rolling period, only 23% of Europe managers and only 28% of US managers as well as 19% of emerging markets managers outperformed their benchmarks net of fees.
In November, the performance of active managers in all regions was behind benchmark. Only 27% of Europe managers and 32% of emerging market managers outperformed their respective indices net of fees. The picture in the US is better, with 43% of the managers beating their indices net of fees.
In Europe, large caps outperformed small caps significantly. Sector-wise and globally, particularly defensive sectors such as utilities, consumer staples and healthcare outperformed. On the other side of the spectrum, energy and materials have been the main underperformers. The underperformance of small caps did hurt most managers in Europe as they have an overweight position in this market cap cluster. As this negative effect was not observable in the US, where small caps performed in line with large caps, US-managers showed better overall results.
Please find the full fundinfo Research News – December 2018 edition including a summary of manager meetings attached on the left.