What's Hot, What's Not: UK Small Caps thrive, Japan skives

Posted by: Ben Debney

A Brexit trade deal and approval of the Oxford vaccine allowed UK Small Cap funds to take centre stage in December. Meanwhile a few Japanese funds have had a blip.

What’s Hot

• 60% of Top 10 spots are funds from UK Smaller Companies. This includes Premier Miton UK Smaller Companies and two Marlborough funds: Nano Cap Growth and Micro Cap Growth.
• The current fund in our Jan/Jul Bonkers 6-Month portfolio, Guinness Sustainable Energy, sits in fourth place. This fund has 20% of its holdings in Tech, Media & Telecoms, and 17% in Basic Materials.
• Alongside a Chinese and a Global Emerging Market fund, there is the precious metals fund Merian Gold and Silver from the Specialist sector.

What’s Not

• Three Japan funds sit in the Bottom 10, namely Legg Mason IF Japan Equity and Baillie Gifford Japanese Smaller Companies. Despite a poor showing last month, the longer term performance of these funds is impressive.
• There are a couple of Targeted Absolute Return funds, these being Wellington Global Total Return and Veritas Global Real Return.
• Making up the remainder of the Bottom 10 is a real mixture of funds, including property, infrastructure and global bond funds. 

 

What's Hot
Name	Sector	Last Month Performance %
Premier Miton UK Smaller Companies	UK Smaller Companies	15.67
Marlborough Nano Cap Growth	UK Smaller Companies	15.16
New Capital China Equity	China/Greater China	13.20
Guinness Sustainable Energy	Global	11.53
Merian Gold And Silver	Specialist	11.44
FP Octopus UK Micro Cap Growth	UK Smaller Companies	11.18
PGIM Jennison Emerging Markets Equity	Global Emerging Markets	10.79
Ninety One UK Smaller Companies	UK Smaller Companies	10.21
Marlborough UK Micro Cap Growth	UK Smaller Companies	10.15
TB TB Amati UK Smaller Companies	UK Smaller Companies	10.02
Performance 01/12/2020-31/12/2020

 

What's Not
Name	Sector	Last Month Performance %
Legg Mason IF Japan Equity	Japan	-4.27
Baillie Gifford Japanese Smaller Companies	Japanese Smaller Companies	-4.01
L&G Global Infrastructure Index	Global	-2.73
GAM Star Japan Leaders	Japan	-2.55
Wellington Global Total Return	Targeted Absolute Return	-2.53
Fidelity China Focus	China/Greater China	-2.43
Fidelity Global Infrastructure	Global Equity Income	-2.42
Veritas Global Real Return	Targeted Absolute Return	-2.26
Threadneedle Dollar Bond	Global Bonds	-2.24
NB US Real Estate Securities	Property Other	-2.20
Performance 01/12/2020-31/12/2020