HL fund analysts reveal their star performers of 2022

Written by Emma Wall, Head of Investment Analysis and Research

2022 was a tough year for global markets – with equities and bonds falling in unison as inflation soared, economic uncertainty prevailed and political leaders offered little respite. 

However, not all investments lost money in the tumult. After a near decade run of outperformance, the tide turned on growth-style investments and value came up trumps. Of the Wealth Shortlist fund managers, Ben Whitmore at Jupiter Asset Management was amongst the top performers, with two funds in the top five for 2022 returns.

Whitmore’s value-bias had been out-of-favour for a stretch as tech-heavy funds dominated the lockdown years, but as the year opened with concerns about the US economy, value investments began a rally, extended by the war in Ukraine as soaring commodities prices boosted oil and gas and mining stocks.

The FTSE 100 was also a beneficiary of the commodity rally, outperforming the broader FTSE All Share which includes smaller, more economically sensitive, companies by 6%. But the top performing Wealth Shortlist fund of 2022 was Man GLG Japan CoreAlpha, a value-biased fund, invested in financials, consumer and industrial companies, which underwent a change in management in 2021. It outperformed the FTSE Japan by an impressive 22% after years of underperformance – showing the importance of investing in a diverse range of styles as well as asset classes and geographies.

Capital preservation fund Pyrford Global Total Return also featured in the top 10 – a fund that always lags a market rally, but aims to shine in times of volatility and market stress, though the target of beating the Retail Price Index inflation measure proved too tough in a year of record price rises.

Of course, where there are winners, there are losers, and in intentionally adding funds on the Wealth Shortlist that perform differently from one another it means some managers struggled in 2022. Growth-biased Baillie Gifford American was the worst performer of 2022, losing more than half its value, and ASI Global Smaller Companies – a fund with a compelling long term track record – also underperformed peers and benchmark due to its smaller companies and growth style. UK smaller companies funds from Amati and Royal London also lost value, and rounding out the bottom five was First State Japan Focus – one of 2021’s stars, but the quality-growth bias hurt in 2022.