The price of crude has almost doubled since the middle of January on the back largely of a growing belief that supply was beginning to come out of the market – a remarkable change from the start of the year when many were predicting that the price could continue to fall even further.
But, oil is not the only commodity toward which investors have had a rapid change of heart. As Adrian Ash, head of research at BullionVault reminded Portfolio Adviser, gold’s rise in the first quarter was the fastest dollar increase in 30 years. And was followed, he said, by significant interest in the sector, particularly through ETFs and nominated accounts on behalf of family offices.
Those investors that put money into active funds were also rewarded. As can be seen from the table below, of the top 20 performing funds year-to-date 13 are gold or general resources funds. Of the remaining seven, two are Brazil funds, one is Russian-focused and two are broad Latin American funds, all of which have significant commodities exposure.
Top 20 funds
| Fund | YTD performance % |
|
MFM Junior Gold |
99.08 |
| WAY Charteris Gold & Precious Metals | 88.28 |
| Smith & Williamson Global Gold & Resources | 63.94 |
| Investec Global Gold | 63.20 |
| CF Ruffer Gold | 57.66 |
| BlackRock Gold & General | 54.99 |
| Old Mutual Blackrock Gold & General | 54.69 |
| SF Peterhouse Smaller Companies Gold | 51.95 |
| CF Canlife Global Resource | 30.60 |
| HSBC GIF Brazil Equity | 28.43 |
| Legg Mason IF Japan Equity | 26.95 |
| Old Mutual JPM Natural Resources | 24.94 |
| Invesco Perpetual Japanese Smaller Companies | 24.77 |
| JPM Brazil Equity | 24.61 |
| BlackRock GF World Mining | 23.92 |
| Pictet Russian Equities TR | 23.29 |
| JPM Natural Resources | 23.24 |
| Scottish Widows Latin American | 23.06 |
| Aberdeen Latin American Equity | 22.25 |
| First State Global Resources | 21.87 |
Source: FE Analytics
