Performance of funds over 10-yrs
| Fund |
3-yr growth (%) |
5-yr growth (%) | 10-yr growth (%) |
| Hiscox - Insurance Portfolio |
23.29 |
25.48 |
64.45 |
| Jupiter - Financial Opportunities |
22.42 |
25.28 |
167.23 |
| Thornhill - SPFM Global Growth |
7.79 |
5.34 |
11.38 |
| City Financial - Multimanager Growth |
-1.54 |
4.28 |
26.85 |
| Fidelity - Global Financial Services |
9.35 |
3.8 |
30.62 |
| SWIP - Financial |
-7.72 |
-3.91 |
26.1 |
| JPM - Global Financials |
-14.23 |
-22.4 |
-3.16 |
| AXA - Framlington Financial |
-13.53 |
-25.53 |
-7.42 |
Source: Financial Express Analytics
Over the last decade, the Jupiter Financial Opportunities fund, managed by Guy de Blonay and Philip Gibbs, performed the best, returning 167 per cent.
Over periods of three and five years, Hiscox Insurance Portfolio had the strongest growth by a small margin.
At the other end of the performance table, the Richard Peirson-managed AXA Framlington Financial fund actually lost seven per cent in the last decade and 26 per cent over a five-year period. The JPM Global Financials fund, managed by Simon Poncet and Peter Kirkman, also posted significant losses.
Performance of funds vs index over 5-yrs
Source: Financial Express Analytics
The graph above shows how the funds performed versus the MSCI WRLD/FINANCIALS index. The AXA Framlington Financial and the JPM Global Financials funds only slightly underperformed the sector index by some three per cent over the five-year period.
Richard Hancock, investment analyst at Investment Maze, does not think Osborne’s levy will have a negative impact on the performance of financials stocks.
"Whilst it might come as a bit of a shock, and it seems a big chunk of cash, the levy is not going to affect the banks too greatly," he said.
Graham Toone, head of investment research at Margetts Fund Management, agrees, saying: "The share prices haven’t been affected this morning so I don’t think the levy’s going to have any great impact on investments going forward."
Trustnet Alpha Manager Philip Dicken says he will avoid funds with a financial focus in 2011 because he believes they lack innovation.