Funds tracking the UK stock market handed investors the heaviest losses yesterday although most funds – active and passive – were able to shield their investors from the worst of the falls, FE fundinfo data shows. 
The FTSE 100 had its second worst day on record yesterday, when it fell 10.9 per cent on the back of the coronavirus and Trump’s travel ban.
On 20 October 1987 – known as Black Monday – saw the blue-chip index hand investors a bigger loss when it dropped 12.2 per cent.
Given the heavy losses sustained yesterday, we ran the numbers on the IA UK All Companies, IA UK Equity Income and IA UK Smaller Companies sector to see which funds were hit hardest.
Source: FE Analytics
As can be seen, several passive funds are at the top of the list – which should be too much of a surprise as they are designed to mirror any gains and falls in the stock market.
Vanguard FTSE UK Equity Income Index and Vanguard FTSE 100 Index Unit Trust made the biggest losses, but they were followed by the £422.9m ASI UK Unconstrained Equity fund – an active strategy.
Square Mile Investment Consulting & Research said of ASI UK Unconstrained Equity: “Although this fund has the ability to lead to impressive periods of returns, the process can be vulnerable at times.
“The fund is perhaps most susceptible to periods of underperformance when macro events dominate the market and investors are less focused on company fundamentals.”
However, it’s interesting that only these three funds made a higher loss lower than the 10.43 per cent fall seen in the wider FTSE All Share index.
Other passives are towards the top of the list, but they made a lower loss than the FTSE 100 and the FTSE All Share, as did most active funds.
In an article next week, Trustnet will look at how active and passive funds have held up over the recent market sell-off