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<<

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