India and tech were the two top-performing Investment Association (IA) sectors in June, according to FE Fundinfo data.
IA India/Indian Subcontinent returned 8.1% in the month despite a brief fall following the result of the country’s election, in which the BJP party led by Narendra Modi secured another term in power.
Tech was up 6.4%, while Asia Pacific ex Japan experienced returns of 4.1% returns in June.
| Fund sectors – One month (top five) | Return % |
| India/Indian Subcontinent | +8.09 |
| Technology & Technology Innovation | +6.38 |
| Asia Pacific ex Japan | +4.09 |
| North America | +3.67 |
| Global Emerging Markets | +3.58 |
“Another interesting month for markets with the two most expensive areas, India and Tech, leading the way,” said director at Fairview Investing Ben Yearsley.
“Will nothing derail these stories? In India it seems unlikely now the election is out the way but will lack of rate cuts eventually do for Nasdaq? A stronger dollar is the other potential issue; its been holding back emerging markets for a decade so it’s a positive seeing a good positive return for these markets last month.”
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By individual funds, JPM Emerging Europe Equity shot up 20.3%. However, the fund has lost 98.9% over five years owing to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Aviva European Property also enjoyed a strong month, up 13.1%. Fairview’s Yearsley added that the performance of the two funds was a ‘small comfort’ to investors with the Aviva strategy down 36% over a five year period.
At the other end of the scale, Latin America was the worst performer over the month, dropping 5.8% as elections in Mexico saw the market fall. European Smaller Companies and Commodity/Natural Resources also suffered in June, falling 3.7% and 3.6% respectively.
| Fund sectors – One month (bottom five) | Return % |
| Latin America | -5.82 |
| European Smaller Companies | -3.71 |
| Commodity/Natural Resources | -3.59 |
| Europe ex UK | -2.0 |
| China/Greater China | -1.79 |
Climate change was a common theme among the month’s worst performers, with seven of the month’s bottom 10 being climate or energy transition funds. Active Solar fell 15.7%, while GMO Climate Change Select Investment and Schroder Global Energy Transition dropped 10.4% and 10.2% respectively.
“Markets are still in this slightly strange holding pattern, not helped by inept politicians globally,” Yearsley added.
“We have Rishi Sunak’s strange decision to head to the polls now, president Macron doing the same thing in France with equally bad results, and over the pond ‘Sleepy Joe’ lived up to his moniker with even the normal cheerleader-in-chief, the New York Times, saying he should step down.
“The reality is though that in the US, Biden and Trump aren’t a million miles away on policy nor are the Tories and Labour in the UK. France may well be the one to watch as that could cause EU earthquakes especially if the exit polls are correct.”
This story was written by our sister title Portfolio Adviser
