Asian funds endure poor performance in 2023 as local currency bonds thrive
Of the firm’s 124 equity categories, 19 returned a net negative performance in 2023, with the bottom ten dominated by Asia exposures.
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Equity China was the worst performing category, losing 18.8% throughout the year, followed by Equity China Small- & Mid-Cap (-18.6%) and Equity Hong Kong (-18.2%).
Other poor performers including Equity Kuwait (-12.7%) and two equity themes: Agribusiness (-7.2%) and Alternative Energy (-6.4%).
Meanwhile, the best performing equity funds were more varied, with Equity Poland Small- and Mid-Cap taking the number one spot (44.2% gain), while Equity Sector Information Tech (42.1% gain) and Equity Sector Communication Services (28%) also recorded strong performances.
Among the firm’s 91 bond fund classifications, only five showed a net negative performance throughout the year.
These were Asia Pacific local currency bonds, as well as bonds in Norwegian krona, Chinese yuan, Japanese yen and Turkish lira, the latter of which suffered the worst performance at -16.6%.
By contrast, the best performance bonds were Hungarian forint bonds, gaining 24.9% throughout 2023, followed by Brazilian real bonds (20.6% gain) and Polish zloty bonds (19.3% gain). Nine out of the ten best-performing bond classifications were based on foreign currencies.
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In the 71 Lipper mixed asset categories, only seven had an average negative performance, with the mixed asset Polish zloty conservative funds taking the top spot with 25.9% gains over the year, following by mixed asset Polish zloty balanced (24.8%).
Absolute Return Other also had a strong year, growing by 15.3%, while mixed asset Japanese Yen balanced performed worst, losing 9.4% throughout 2023.
“The development of the base currencies of the funds and ETFs compared to the euro had a large impact on the positions of the single classifications in the respective bond and mixed-assets league tables,” noted Detlef Glow, head of Lipper EMEA research at LSEG.
