Euro-Denominated Equity Funds
Overall, European equity markets have continued their upward trend over the past year, despite geopolitical concerns in Ukraine and uncertainty over the ECB’s willingness to support struggling economies. It is generally believed that active management may be able to add value to investment portfolios in highly turbulent markets such as this one. However, this belief was once again found to be inconsistent with our findings.
Over the past year, about 74% of European and Eurozone equity funds did not beat their benchmarks and among all fund categories examined, the worst performing were funds invested in global markets. More than 96% of them underperformed their respective benchmarks over a five-year period.
GBP-Denominated Equity Funds
As in the SPIVA® Europe Year-End 2013 report, active GBP-denominated funds invested in U.K. equities delivered the best performance. Over a one-year period, most U.K. funds performed better than their benchmarks. However, this tremendous performance was not repeated in the international fund categories. Most global, emerging market and U.S. active funds underperformed their respective benchmarks over one-, three- and five-year time horizons.
This article was written by Daniel Ung, associate director, index research & design, S&P Dow Jones Indices.
© S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2013. Indexology® is a trademark of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC (SPDJI). S&P® is a trademark of Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones® is a trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC, and those marks have been licensed to SPDJI. This material is reproduced with the prior written consent of SPDJI. For more information on SPDJI, visit http://www.spdji.com