As we have passed the half year point of 2024 we thought it a good time to have a rummage through our databases to see how the most owned funds are faring.
The most-owned product of any kind is now the Vanguard US Government Bond Index, which appears in 17 of the portfolios we monitor and has picked up a net of three new buyers since June 2023.
Returns from developed market government bonds, of any flavour, have been tough to come by in recent times, with the US government bond index having returned precisely zero in three years in sterling terms, though the prospect of rate cuts has helped in 2024, with a return for the fund being 1.7 per cent.
One of the most-owned actively managed equity funds among the allocators we cover is still JPM US Equity Income, which is held by eight allocators (it has lost one so far this year which is probably due to the departure of manager Clare Hart denting some sentiment).
But the interesting development here is that the JPM fund is now tied with M&G Japan, which has picked up three new allocators in 2024, and eight in 2023, with no sellers.
Managed by Carl Vince since 2019, over the past five years the fund has returned 59 per cent, compared with 32 per cent for the average product in the IA Japan sector.
The performance has been consistently good for years, but one suspects the sharp shift in sentiment towards Japanese equities in general has led to the increased demand for this fund.
Indeed, the mandate has almost trebled in size in three years, growing from £2.7bn to £6.6bn in the three years from the end of June 2021 to July 8 2024.
The largest sectoral exposure is to consumer companies.
The other thing that jumped out from our rummage around the database is the increased demand over the past year for the Evenlode Income fund, run from the Cotswolds by Hugh Yarrow.
It has picked up one new buyer in 2024, having attracted three in 2023.
This is a slightly unusual fund in that it is an income fund which doesn't sit in the UK Equity Income sector but the UK All Companies one instead.
The fund has actually underperformed on a year-to-date basis, a one-year basis and a five-year basis, though it has returned twice the sector average on a three-year basis.
James Senior of RSMR says the fund is likely to underperform during periods when cyclical stocks are doing well, but he added: "The team have demonstrated excellent stock picking ability since 2009. It is suitable as a core option for investors seeking exposure to UK equities."
Any performance issues are probably a function of the types of companies it owns, mostly long-duration consumer goods type equities, which are always likely to underperform when interest rates have risen.
The largest exposures are to Unilever, Diageo, and Relx, companies which produce the kind of dependable income that often has them labelled “bond proxies”.
