Best and worst Aussie broad caps for risk-adjusted returns
Money Management used FE Analytics to look at the Sharpe ratios of Australian broad caps from 31 August last year to 31 August 2018 and found the best and worst funds for risk-adjusted returns.
SG Hiscock, Bennelong, Macquarie, Ganes Capital, DDH Graham and Cooper Investors are fund managers that have continued to find themselves in Money Management’s good books for their consistent outperformance of benchmarks and relatively low FE Risk Scores, and this is no exception.
Sitting top of the bunch, the SGH Australia Plus fund is the best fund for risk-adjusted returns, with a Sharpe ratio of 1.77, where the average Sharpe ratio of all Aussie broad caps is 0.79 and the S&P ASX 200 index has a Sharpe ratio of 0.77.
Bennelong Concentrated Australian Equities sits second with a Sharpe ratio of 1.72, Macquarie Australian Shares is third with Sharpe ratio of 1.49 and Ganes Value Growth and DDH Selector Australian Equities are equal fourth with a Sharpe ratio of 1.4.
CI Brunswick sits bottom of the top five with a Sharpe ratio of 1.37 but has the lowest volatility of the five funds with 7.44 per cent, where the index is 11.79 per cent.
SGH Australia Plus is similarly in the top decile for volatility with 9.2 per cent, followed by Ganes Value Growth at 10.2 per cent and Macquarie Australian Shares at 11.2 per cent.
The chart below shows the performance of the top five funds as compared to the ASX200.
While there were some standout losers as well, 119 funds in the Australian broad-cap sector had a Sharpe ratio lower than the ASX200, including some big names like AMP Capital, Perpetual, Franklin Templeton and Ellerston.
Franklin Templeton Australian Equity had a Sharpe ratio of 0.58, putting it in the eighth decile for risk-adjusted returns and the ninth for volatility, which was 13.23 per cent.
AMP Capital’s Equity fund had a Sharpe ratio of 0.57, as did Perpetual’s Australian Share, while Ellerston’s Overlay Australian Share fund sat at 0.54 and Advance Australian Equity Growth sat at 0.52.
APSEC Atlantic Pacific Australian Equity, Crescent Wealth Australian Equity and Macquarie Dividend Run Up all had a Sharpe ratio of zero, while BetaShares Australian Equities Bear Hedge and BetaShares Australian Equities Strong Bear Hedge fell into the negative with -0.02 and -0.08 respectively.
Recommended for you
The newly combined L1 Group is expectant of stabilising Platinum’s falling funds under management within the next 18 months, unveiling four growth pathways and a $330 million equity raise.
Janus Henderson Investors has launched a global small-cap fund for Australian investors, which includes a 5.4 per cent weighting to Australian equities.
The CEO of L1 Group, formerly known as Platinum Asset Management, has stepped down with immediate effect, and the asset manager has announced his replacement.
Private equity manager Scarcity Partners has backed a specialist investment manager focused on metals and mining, seeking to meet investor demand for real assets.

