Interactive Investor

10 most popular funds - March 2018

20th April 2018 16:05

Marina Gerner from interactive investor

Once again Terry Smith's Fundsmith Equity sits at the top of the most-bought fund list on our sister website Interactive Investor for the month of March.

The fund is a Money Observer Rated Fund, with over half of its assets in US equities such as Microsoft and PayPal.

Legg Mason IF Japan Equity went up by one place to come third in March. Managed by Tokyo-based Hideo Shiozumi, the fund has 27% of its holdings in healthcare and 26% in industrials.

It overtook Money Observer Rated Fund Lindsell Train Global Equity, jointly managed by Michael Lindsell and Nick Train. Their global equity fund came third fell to third on the list.

On fourth place we find passive tracker Vanguard LifeStrategy 80% Equity, which holds North American equities, UK equities and European equities and global bonds.

Rising by four spots, Baillie Gifford Japanese Smaller Companies came fifth, once again illustrating that investors feel positive about the prospects in Japan. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe continues to drive through structural change, while valuations look cheap compared to the developed markets of the US and UK.

Henderson Global Technology went up by four spots to become sixth most-bought fund on the list. It has 80 % of its holdings in the US, including Facebook, Microsoft, Alphabet and Apple. Big tech companies have been the main drivers of US growth last year. However, they're now encountering headwinds, as Facebook and Google continue to face questions around data protection, security and privacy.

Baillie Gifford Greater China came seventh. After facing fears of a hard landing, the Chinese economy remained resilient last year, and the country's GDP is expected to grow by some 6% in 2018. But it's worth remembering that China also faces huge challenges due to its environmental pollution and the lack of social services for its growing urban population.

Two new entries appear on the list: Ballie Gifford American and Baillie Gifford Global Discovery came in eighth and ninth in our table.

Ballie Gifford American invests in US large caps like Amazon, Tesla, Netflix, Alphabet and Facebook, as well as Abiomed, Grubhub and Illumina.

The Global Discovery fund has 55% of its holdings in the US, 18.5 in the UK and 11 in the rest of Europe with a focus on the health and information technology sector.

The tracker fund Vanguard LifeStrategy 100% retained its position in the top 10. The two funds exiting our list are Jupiter India and Vanguard LifeStrategy 60% Equity.

Source: interactive investor       Past performance is not a guide to future performance

Full performance can be found on the company or index summary page on the interactive investor website. Simply click on the company's or index name highlighted in the article.

This article was originally published in our sister magazine Money Observer, which ceased publication in August 2020.

These articles are provided for information purposes only. Occasionally, an opinion about whether to buy or sell a specific investment may be provided by third parties. The content is not intended to be a personal recommendation to buy or sell any financial instrument or product, or to adopt any investment strategy as it is not provided based on an assessment of your investing knowledge and experience, your financial situation or your investment objectives. The value of your investments, and the income derived from them, may go down as well as up. You may not get back all the money that you invest. The investments referred to in this article may not be suitable for all investors, and if in doubt, an investor should seek advice from a qualified investment adviser.

Full performance can be found on the company or index summary page on the interactive investor website. Simply click on the company's or index name highlighted in the article.

These articles are provided for information purposes only.  Occasionally, an opinion about whether to buy or sell a specific investment may be provided by third parties.  The content is not intended to be a personal recommendation to buy or sell any financial instrument or product, or to adopt any investment strategy as it is not provided based on an assessment of your investing knowledge and experience, your financial situation or your investment objectives. The value of your investments, and the income derived from them, may go down as well as up. You may not get back all the money that you invest. The investments referred to in this article may not be suitable for all investors, and if in doubt, an investor should seek advice from a qualified investment adviser.

Full performance can be found on the company or index summary page on the interactive investor website. Simply click on the company's or index name highlighted in the article.