The past 12 months have seen a number of unexpected political events that have caused intermittent stockmarket wobbles around the world.
But in a period that has seen the UK vote to leave the EU and the US elect outsider Donald Trump as president, equity market indices have overall performed better than many might have expected.
The S&P 500 index gained a sizeable 31.9 per cent in sterling terms for the 12 months to May 18 2017, data from FE shows.
Meanwhile, the MSCI Emerging Markets index climbed 43.3 per cent in the same period, with the FTSE All-Share gaining 24.8 per cent in sterling terms.
The equity categories in the IA 100 Club have also lived up to expectations, with the North American Equity group delivering an average 12-month return of 34.1 per cent, ahead of the S&P 500 index.
Even the Global Emerging Markets category, which has seen a boost in recent months but struggled in the second half of 2016, has seen its members deliver an average return of 39.1 per cent in the period, only slightly behind the MSCI Emerging Markets benchmark.
The nine equity groups of the 100 Club are broken down into both regions and styles, comprising Global Equity, Global Emerging Markets, North American Equity, Japanese Equity, Asia Pacific Equity, European Equity, UK Equity, UK Equity Income and UK Smaller Companies.
Of these nine categories, the combined average performance of the club members outperformed the relevant Investment Association (IA) sector peer group average across five years in every sector.
In addition, seven categories also outperformed the relevant Association of Investment Companies (AIC) peer group average, apart from European and Japanese equities, where the average investment trust performance was higher in the 12 months to May 18 2017.
While there were only seven trusts listed in five equity groups in 2016, with three of these appearing in the UK Equity Income category, in four of these groups it was a closed-ended vehicle that topped the performance rankings over five years.
In only one group, Asia-Pacific Equity, did an open-ended fund beat an investment trust for the top spot, and in this case it was the winning offering in the category, Veritas Asian, that has continued its strong performance and justified its selection as the best in class.
The difference between open- and closed-ended performance this year has been less extreme as there were fewer trusts in the categories than in recent years.
But the figures show that trusts appear to have weathered the geopolitical and macroeconomic storms better than most, with three of the top-five performing vehicles for the five years to May 18, in sterling terms, being closed-ended offerings.
These all come from different categories – the JPMorgan Mid-Cap trust from UK Equity, the Independent Investment Trust from Global Equity and Invesco Perpetual’s UK Smaller Companies vehicle from UK Smaller Companies.
The top-performing open-ended fund across five years was Legg Mason IF Japan Equity, returning 308 per cent in sterling terms.
The worst performer of the 45 equity members was the Carmignac Portfolio Emerging Discovery fund in the Global Emerging Markets category. The vehicle’s return of 55.1 per cent still outperformed both the IA Global Emerging Markets sector average of 47.4 per cent and the AIC Global Emerging Markets Equity peer group average of 41.5 per cent.
With continued uncertainty around the globe, particularly regarding political issues, consistent long-term performance that delivers above-average results will remain a key focus for investors.
As the UK heads into its third vote in two years, with Mr Trump facing questions over Russia and the Brazilian president drawn into a new corruption scandal, there remain plenty of headwinds. But there are still ample opportunities for the savvy investor who can identify funds that can weather these storms in the longer term.
Nyree Stewart is features editor at Investment Adviser
Key club numbers: Performance and stats
Global Equity
152%
Average five-year performance of category members
1
Number of investment trusts
Global Emerging Markets
65.3%
Average five-year performance of category members
3
Number of new entrants
UK Equity
151%
Average five-year performance of category members
1
Number of investment trust members
UK Equity Income
121%
Average five-year performance of category members
3
Number of Investment trust members
UK Smaller Companies
164%
Average five-year performance of category members
3
Number of new entrants
North American Equity
152%
Average five-year performance of category members
4
Number of new entrants
European Equity
137%
Average five-year performance of category members
3
Number of new entrants
Japanese Equity
165%
Average five-year performance of category members
4
Number of new entrants
Asia Pacific Equity
98.4%
Average five-year performance of category members
2
Number of Schroders vehicles
BEST PERFORMER
308%
Five-year performance of best-performing Legg Mason IF Japan Equity
4 out of 5
Number of equity categories with ITs topping performance
Source FE Analytics. All data to May 17 2017 and total return in pounds sterling
