Mid-year review: which Elite Rated funds have performed best in 2019?

While we may have started 2019 optimistically – hoping Brexit would finally be resolved – as we reach the half-way point of the year, it continues to cause economic, political and stock market uncertainty in the UK.

Meanwhile, the major issues for global stock markets also continue to be the US/China trade war and US interest rate policy. The latter is really the only aspect that has changed in the past six months, as the US central bank has moved from implied interest rate rises to interest rate cuts. As a result, however, almost every single asset class and geography has rallied strongly in the first six months of the year.

Best performing Elite Rated and Radar funds

The best performing Elite Rated and Radar funds so far this year are dominated by US, European and global equities. However, top of the pack over the first six months of 2019 is Smith & Williamson Artificial Intelligence, which has returned just under 30%* for investors.

It is closely followed in second place by Jupiter European Opportunities trust, which returned 27.69%*, while AXA Framlington American Growth comes third, with returns of 27.59%*.

The top ten best performers are shown in the table below.

Mid-year resolutions

As we head into the second half of the year, ‘new resolutions’ will be key to what asset classes continue to perform well: resolution of trade wars should help Asian and Japanese stock markets rebound, while resolution of Brexit should help British companies, which remain very much out of favour. Whether we get those resolutions, especially in that time scale, remains to be seen.