The majority of UK equity fund managers outperformed their benchmark over the past year however this was not replicated across other areas of the market.
According to S&P Dow Jones Indices’ 2019 SPIVA Europe scorecard, 72.5% of active UK equity managers beat the S&P United Kingdom BMI index.
This is a big improvement from 2018 when just 26.6% of UK equity funds managed to outperform the index.
Furthermore, some 70.4% of UK large or mid-cap managers beat their benchmark, however, somewhat surprisingly, just 40% of UK small-cap managers outperformed the S&P United Kingdom SmallCap index.
Andrew Innes, head of global research and design, EMEA, at SPDJI, noted: “The strength seen in active UK equity funds did not apply to most of the other GBP-denominated fund categories, implying that UK fund managers may generally only have had an advantage on home soil.”
The story was not the same for sterling-denominated global and US equity fund, with the majority of managers failing to beat their respective indices.
Emerging markets managers performed strongly over the year with some 64% beating the S&P/IFCI Composite index.
For European equities, 54.4% of sterling-denominated managers outperformed over the past year while only 28.9% of euro-denominated equivalents achieved this feat.
Innes added: “2019 was a buoyant year for European equities following the sharp downturn that occurred at the end of 2018.
“Markets proved more resilient in the face of continued trade disputes between the US and China, while a stimulus package from the European Central Bank in September 2019 gave equities a further boost.”
Source: SPDJI
