Median Mutual Funds Negative in 2001

According to Morningstar Canada, the best places for fund investors in 2001 were:

• the Precious Metals category with median returns of 28%
• Canadian Income Trust category, where median returns were 14%.

While, the biggest losers were:

• the Science and Technology category, which posted median returns of negative 36% despite increasing 1% over the month, and 33% over the fourth quarter
• Japanese Equity category, which fell by 26%
• International Equity fared little better, its median performance down by 19%
  

December Performance

In December seven out of every eight funds appreciated. The median fund return was 2%, as equity markets rose for the third consecutive month, according to Morningstar Canada.

Among individual categories in December:

• Latin American Equity was the top performer, the median fund in that group gaining 11%
• Precious Metals category, where the median fund increased by 8%
• median Japanese Equity fund skidded to a 5% loss.

Individual Funds

Morningstar’s numbers show that the best performing fund:

• over the month, was Dynamic QSSP, with a gain of nearly 15%
• over the year, was Sprott Hedge Fund LP, which rocketed by 64%
• a 68% return made AIC Global Developing Technologies the top fund over the fourth quarter

The worst performing funds during the month, quarter and year, respectively, were:

• AGF Managed Futures Value, which lost 7% in December
• Excalibur Harvest Canadian, which fell by 31% over three months
• Cambridge Resource, which was down 68% for 2001.