The best and worst-performing funds in 2024

It has been a fantastic year for investors. Global equity markets, as measured by the MSCI World index, are up 22%, while the US market has nearly delivered 30% returns. Even UK shares are up a respectable 10% (all data to 12 December).

Meanwhile, inflation has dropped down to around 2% and interest rates have begun to fall. Outside the developed world, India and China are up nearly 20%. Bonds are generally flat, however.

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Anyone investing in a broad equity market index fund has done well, but some active funds have done even better. There have also been some big active manager losers this year.

Here, we look at the best and worst-performing funds of the year.

The 10 best funds in 2024

American technology shares – not for the first time – are where the top active fund managers invested this year.

Taking data up to 12 December, and excluding funds not available on the ii platform, shows that six funds invested broadly in American tech stocks.

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They were: MS INVF US Growth (51.45% return); T. Rowe Price US Blue Chip Equity (40.6% return); New Capital US Growth (40% return); Morgan Stanley US Advantage (38.6% return); Baillie Gifford American (38% return); Janus Henderson Global Technology Leaders (37.8%) and L&G Global Technology Index Trust (37.3% return).

While Baillie Gifford American is popular with ii customers, the other funds are generally lower down our most-bought lists.

Morgan Stanley runs two strategies on the list MS INVF US Growth and Morgan Stanley US Advantage. There is lots of overlap in the holdings, including top 10 positions in Cloudflare, Tesla, DoorDash and Shopify. In fact, Baillie Gifford American also has these four stocks in its top 10 holdings. This makes sense as both funds invest in a similar way – looking for fast-growing American companies, while generally avoiding big positions in the largest tech names, such as Apple and Microsoft.

T. Rowe Price US Blue Chip Equity and Janus Henderson Global Technology Leaders are more concentrated in the largest US tech names, including Alphabet, Microsoft and Nvidia, but also have lots of overlapping shares with the top Morgan Stanley and Baillie Gifford funds. New Capital US Growth looks similar too, with Nvidia, Apple and Alphabet the largest shares currently.

The only passive fund on the top 10 list, L&G Global Technology Index Trust was a star performer due to very large (around 15% for each today) positions in the biggest tech shares: Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia. Because it tracks the FTSE World Technology benchmark, there is no active manager to cut positions if they become too large.

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The other top funds this year offer different investment propositions.

SVS Aubrey Global Conviction was the second-best fund, returning 48.3%. It invests globally, with about three-quarters invested in the US. But unlike other top funds, technology is a relatively small part of its portfolio, at just 15%. Instead, it likes industrial companies. The top 10 shares include little-followed names such as Comfort Systems USA and Construction Partners.

Meon Adaptive Growth, returning 38.5%, is also a bit unusual. Run out of Bristol, it invests in British, American and European shares. While delivering an impressive return, it has just £21 million invested in it and only launched in April 2022. Its top shares are Novo Nordisk, Grainger and Cencora.

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The final fund is Jupiter Gold & Silver , which has risen 37.5%. It owns gold and silver mining companies, as well as the precious metals themselves via physically backed exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The gold price has risen from about $2,000 an ounce to $2,600 this year.

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Source: FE FundInfo, total return 1 January 2024 to 12 December 2024. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.

The worst funds in 2024

One clear theme emerged among the worst-performing funds this year: Latin American equities, with this sector accounting for eight of the 10 worst funds available on our platform in 2024.

The FTSE Latin America index, in sterling, is down just over 20% this year. The Brazilian market, which is the largest part of the index, has fallen more than 25% in sterling terms.

The worst fund was BlackRock Latin American, which fell 27.5%. It has about two-thirds invested in Brazil and one-third in Mexico. Financials and materials are the largest sector allocations.

Part of this drop is due to weaker currencies, but lower commodity prices and the impact on mining and oil companies have also played a role. Moreover, there are fears that incoming US president Donald Trump’s trade tariffs will impact Latin American exports to the United States.

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The other sector that has performed very poorly has been clean energy shares, with Schroder Global Energy Transition the worst fund so far this year with a 24% drop.

The fund owns renewable energy stocks such as First Solar and Vestas Wind Systems . Trump’s election is seen as a negative for the sector, but higher interest rates have also affected investment and drawn many out of “alternative” assets and into bonds.

Source: FE FundInfo, total return 1 January 2024 to 12 December 2024. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.