Economy

Markets

Industries

Insights

Reports

Events

Lipper names 14 best Chinese funds

By Jin Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-04-16 10:17

Lipper, a Reuters fund research company, recently gave 14 awards to mutual funds in China that have delivered consistently strong, risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers.

It was the second year for Lipper to reward Chinese funds that have performed consistently well over the past one, two and three years. The open-end funds sold in China were evaluated by the research firm in the categories of "total return," "preservation" and "consistent return".

"We regard consistent return as a priority in our evaluation because most investors want funds to have consistently strong risk-adjusted performance," says Zhou Liang, China research manager for Lipper.

"Consistent return can show a fund's ability to regularly outperform its peer grouping. Performance tables, which most investors watch, often only show a snapshot of a specific time period, thus the fund showing top category returns may not have outperformed the grouping on a regular basis," according to Lipper's explanation of its fund rating system.

Mutual fund performance is closely related to the performance of the stock market. The Shanghai Composite Index soared a total of 130 per cent in 2006, when nearly all fund classifications increased in gains by over 110 percent, led by equity funds at 131 percent.

"We cannot expect the China stock market to have such a large increase this year as in 2006. This year's stock market may be full of volatility," says Zhou. "So consistent return becomes crucial for investors who wish to select the best fund."

Changsheng Fund Management Ltd won three individual awards in total, while GF Fund Management Ltd and China International Fund Management Ltd each won two. Fullgoal Fund Management Co Ltd, Harvest Fund Management Co Ltd, GF Fund Management and Yinhua Fund Management Co Ltd received awards for the second consecutive year.

"We are proud that our measurement of such an achievement enables us to make these awards with credible recognition and the strong emphasis on consistency," says Gabriel Burstein, global head of asset management research for Lipper.

In calculating the awards, Lipper rated funds in a range from one to five, with a rating of one the best score or "Lipper Leader" and five the lowest score. Calculations span both equity, fixed income and mixed asset funds. The scores are calculated every month and are tracked in China over one, two and three years.

The highest 20 percent of funds in each classification are named as Lipper Leaders, with the scale descending in 20 percent increments to the lowest rating of five.

Results show that all the China funds that have been given awards were Lipper Leaders in both total return and consistent return.

The Lipper Fund Awards China is a part of the firm's global fund awards program for 2007. The awards now cover 21 countries and regions including Austria, Canada, Germany and France.