Investing November 6, 2003

S&P: Domestic Equity Funds Continue Their Winning Ways

November 6, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Turning in a 6.62% return in October continued domestic equity mutual funds' winning ways in 2003.
Reported by

October’s gains were spread across the board, with each of the nine domestic equity styles tracked by Standard & Poor’s turning in positive results for the month.   Through October, domestic equity are funds are now up 26.40% year-to-date compared to 21.21% for the broad-market bellwether S&P 500, according to Standard & Poor’s online Web service, Fund Advisor.

Small-cap growth was October’s best performing fund investment style, up 8.91% and now has returned a stellar 39.03% year-to-date.   Joining small-cap growth at the top of the monthly leader board was small-cap blend with an 8.30% return (37.08% YTD) and mid-cap growth gaining 7.98% (31.79% YTD).   The remaining investment styles shook out in October as:

Never miss a story — sign up for PLANSPONSOR newsletters to keep up on the latest retirement plan benefits news.

  • small-cap value – 7.61% (32.47% YTD)
  • mid-cap blend – 7.27% (29.87% YTD)
  • mid-cap value – 6.45% (26.41% YTD)
  • large-cap growth – 6.02% (23.53% YTD)
  • large-cap blend – 5.61% (20.72% YTD)
  • large-cap value – 5.53% (20.27% YTD).

For the month, the S&P 500 was up 5.66%.

The lion’s share of the gains for the year have been going to the little guy, as the average small-caps fund has returned 36.19%, a figure nearly 15% better than its large-cap rival that has returned 21.50% on average through October.   Splitting the difference are mid-cap funds turning in an impressive 29.25% through the first 10 months of the year.

«