Gold, Europe, property and renewables dominate active fund returns in H1

Study on purely active mandates

The story of 2025’s opening six months was one of intense volatility for markets and those offering ‘safe havens’ and a move away from US equities drove the funds delivering the highest returns during the period.

Investment Week analysed the total returns of actively managed open- and closed-ended mandates in H1 versus their peers, to see which ones were able deliver some return on investment. European equities outshine US stocks in H1 as rotation continues It is worth noting that is not indicative to outperformance, since all portfolios will have their own respective benchmarks clients are paying them to beat. On the open-ended side, 2,184 out of 3,312 active funds returned above 0%, meaning just over 73% of active funds made some money over the period, according to data from FE Analytics....