- by Suki Mann
Bond Fund Performance Rankings: October 2017
Time now to look at how the largest and top performing funds fared in the quarter/year to October 2017.
The performance of the reasonably-sized funds has BlueBay‘s Investment Grade fund leading the pack, returning over 9% followed by the Schroder ISF Euro Credit funds returning 7.2%, in the third quarter of 2017 to the end of September. That represents an increase versus the 3 months to end of September where the Schroder’s fund returned 7% and BlueBay’s 5.4%.
For the largest funds, again the Schroders ISF Euro Corp fund saw AUM up a little to €8.8bn at the end of October, while it also outperforms in the year to the end of October with almost 5% of performance.
The smaller targeted Schroder ISF Euro Credit Convct fund with AUM of €1.6bn has returned 7% in the past 12 months versus index returns (iBoxx) of around 2%.
>>See the full IG Euro Performance tables<<
In euro HY, the two funds which consistently stick out are the €1,211m Schroders ISF fund and the Evli European HY fund (AUM €858m). They have reasonable size and consistent performance, returning an improved 7.2% and 7.15%, respectively, in the three months to October and around 9% in the 12 months to the end of October.
The €3.8bn Fidelity fund (AUM unchanged) has also generated solid performance of 8% in the 3 months to October and 7.6% in the last 12 months. On the other hand, the €3.8bn Pictet Euro Short-term fund returned just 3.7% in the 3 months (although improved) and just 2.6% in the last 12 months, both to the end of October.
>>See the full HY Euro Performance tables<<
In sterling, the Gilt market sell-off in September impacted performance – and it was clear in all the returns generated.
The high grade market performance had the £250m Liontrust Monthly Income Bond Z fund deliver just 0.38% in the quarter to the end of October (versus -0.37% in the 3 months to the end of September), for example. On the other hand, Rathbone’s Ethical Bond Acc R fund delivered 3.7% in the quarter to the end of October.
For the bigger funds, the IP Corporate Bond Acc (AUM 4.7bn) is a notable out-performer with 2.19% in the 3 months to September along with the M&G Strategic Corporate fund (AUM £3.4bn) on 2.28% of total returns in the quarter to end October. The Scottish Widows Corporate Bond Tracker lost 2.23% in the same period!
On the other hand, the L&G High Income (AUM £1.4bn) delivered a massive 11.2% and 10.5% in the 3 month and 12 month periods to the end of October, respectively, and is once again the notable out-performer in the high yield space.
>>See the full Sterling IG & Sterling HY Performance tables<<