Small global equity funds outshine large funds


It is the smaller end of town when it comes to active global equity funds that have withstood the COVID-19 pandemic better than their larger counterpart, according to data.
FE Analytics data found when the five largest active global equity funds were compared to the five smallest active global equity funds, the top three performing funds were some of the smallest.
The top-performing fund of the group was CFS Baillie Gifford Global Stewardship A which was joint smallest in fund size at $1.2 million. Since the start of 2020 to 30 September, 2020, the fund has returned 44.35%.
This was followed by AtlasTrend Online Shopping Spree at 24.34%, and AtlasTrend Big Data Big at 18.86%.
Largest and smallest active global equity funds
Fund |
Fund size |
|
$11.9 billion |
$7.7 billion |
|
$5.4 billion |
|
$3.99 billion |
|
$3.5 billion |
|
$2.1 million |
|
$1.5 million |
|
$1.4 million |
|
$1.2 million |
|
$1.2 million |
Source: FE Analytics
According to the CFS Baillie Gifford fund’s factsheet, the largest geographical weight was to the US at 51.5%, followed by Japan (11.6%), China (7.7%), Canada (5.2%), and the UK (4.1%).
Its largest holding was in Shopify at 5.2%, followed by Amazon (4.6%), Tesla (4.3%), SoftBank (3.8%), and MarketAxess (3.6%),
The best-performing large fund was Magellan Global at 4.17%, which was the largest fund at $11.9 billion.
Macquarie Walter Scott Global Equity followed at 2.18% and BT Wholesale Multi-manager International Share at a loss of 2.13%.
While Platinum International C was the second-largest fund in the sector at $7.7 billion, it performed the worst in the group at a loss of 9.34%.
Largest and smallest active global equity fund performance since start of 2020
Source: FE Analytics
Over the three years to 30 September, 2020, it was the two AtlasTrend funds that topped the group with the Big Data Big fund returning 75.4% and the Online Shopping Spree at 57.76%.
Magellan Global came in at third at 56.03% and Platinum International C came in last again at 4.4%.
The Big Data Big fund said it invested in firms that were currently benefitting or would soon benefit from the growth in big data. These included companies that provided software and technology to collate, store and analyse data to reveal patters, and firms that used patterns to understand consumer behaviour to improve products and services.
The Online Shopping Spree fund was also one of seven funds that jumped from a FE fundinfo 1 Crown rating to a 5 Crown rating in August.
Largest and smallest active global equity fund performance over the three years to 30 September 2020
Source: FE Analytics
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