In hindsight, there was only one place to be invested over the past 10 years – the US stock market.
In dollar terms, the S&P 500 has delivered a total return of 18.4% per annum since the start of 2011. In rand, it is up 24.4% per year.
This performance from US equities has fuelled the gains of global equity funds available to investors in South Africa.
Over the past decade, 17 of the 20 top-performing funds registered for sale in South Africa are US or global equity portfolios. The remaining three are all international flexible mandates.
Top-performing funds since 1 Jan 2011
Source: Morningstar
It is notable that every one of these funds has substantially under-performed the S&P 500. There is almost a 4% differential between the top performers and the total return of the index in rand terms.
Even then, it is worth pointing out that the top-performing portfolio available to South African investors over the past decade was an index fund. The GinsGlobal US Equity Index fund tracks the MSCI US Index, rather than the S&P 500, but has nevertheless topped the performance rankings over this period.
The full article is available at Moneyweb