Investing December 2, 2005

November Breathes Life into Equities

December 2, 2005 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - November was a good month for stock funds as the average equity offering bested the S&P 500 showing, according to Standard & Poor's data.
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An S&P news release said the average stock fund was ahead by 4.15% over the month, ahead of the 3.78% performance by the S&P 500 benchmark, but trailing the 5.31% November showing from Nasdaq.

During November, the average US growth fund returned 4.82% versus 4.04% for the average blend fund, and 3.96% for the average value fund.  Among the nine investment styles, small-cap growth funds registered the strongest returns in November, pulling ahead by 5.24%.  Mid-cap growth funds were the next best performer during the month, gaining 5.06%, while large-cap value offerings registered the smallest gain, returning 3.42%.

Year-to-date through November, growth funds have returned on average 7.03%, putting them ahead of both value (+6.55%) and blend offerings (+6.48%) for the year.  The performance of mid-cap growth funds leads that of all other investment styles so far in 2005, with an 8.61% gain.  Mid-cap blend and mid-cap value funds have registered the next highest returns, gaining 8.48% and 7.76% respectively for the year ending November 30.

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