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Over the last three months, the Europe excluding UK has borne up rather well, notwithstanding growing concerns over the strength of the euro and the flight of investors. In the month of April alone, the sector saw net outflows of more than £119m – by comparison, only the UK All Companies, out of all other IMA sectors, saw more money leave the door over the period.

Yet, for the three months to 26 May, funds in the sector managed to return 8.5 per cent on average, beating, if only slightly, the 7.2 per cent average return for the Europe including UK sector over the same period, according to Morningstar. This is a marked improvement on the Europe ex UK’s overall performance over the last 12 months, when the average fund lost 0.5 per cent.

The top-performing fund over the period was the £482.5m Neptune European Opportunities, which returned 14.5 per cent. For many investors, this will come as little surprise, as the fund, managed by Rob Burnett, has often led the pack in recent years. It returned 4.6 per cent over the last 12 months, a top 10 showing out of a sector of 96 funds, while over the last three years, it returned 118.5 per cent, with dividends reinvested. No other fund in the sector fared better over the period.

The worst-performing fund over the last three months was the £16.7m JOHCM Continental Select Values fund, which returned 0.5 per cent. Managers Willem Vinke and Robbie Wouters attributed this relatively poor showing to underweight positions in financials and oil and commodity stocks and overweight positions in the consumer goods and services sectors. They also pointed to the fact that, before the sharp market rally in April, European equity markets fell for five months in a row.

Indeed, to a lesser or greater extent, most funds in the sector are still in the process of making up ground for some unquestionably difficult trading earlier in the year. The £383m JPM Europe fund, covered in this week’s Analyst, admits to having struggled when the market came off heavily in January, when many investors were taking profits.

Since then, however, its managers have done well to make back that level of underperformance. The sector’s latest average three-month return, compared with the average for the last 12 months, would suggest that many of the fund’s peers have done the same.