The plummeting price of oil was the biggest factor behind the relative performance of the IA sectors in the final quarter of 2014.
In the latest FundWatch report from the F&C fund of funds, Gary Potter and Rob Burdett found that “sectors sensitive to the price of oil featured among both the best and worst performing sectors”.
The price of oil has fallen from more than $100 per barrel to $50 per barrel, with the bulk of that move coming in the final three months of 2014.
And the IA sectors have reflected that, with the top-performers driven by the belief that the low oil price will boost consumer spending and the bottom performers dragged down by funds investing directly in oil stocks.
The report found the top two performing sectors were the IA North American Smaller Companies, which rose by more than 10 per cent, and the IA North American sector, which returned 8.8 per cent.
By contrast, the IMA Specialist sector fared the worst, falling by 1.9 per cent, because it contains a large number of funds investing in commodity and energy stocks.
