Morningstar Research (Thailand), a unit of the American financial services company, recently revealed the top five global equity funds in terms of returns for the past three years and year-to-date, with most focusing on investing in mega trend themes.
The top five equity foreign investment funds in Thailand over the past three years were SCB Platinum Global Open End Fund (SCBPGF), K Positive Change Equity Fund-A (A) (K-CHANGE-A [A]), Phillip World Innovation (PWIN), TMB World Equity Index (TMBWDEQ), and K Global High Impact Thematic Equity Fund (K-HIT-A [A]).
SCBPGF has a policy to invest in foreign mutual funds, namely DWS Invest CROCI Sectors Plus FCH (P) which is domiciled in Luxembourg. The sectors eligible for selection are consumer discretionary, consumer staples, healthcare, information technology, industrials, materials, telecom services, utilities and energy.
K-CHANGE-A (A) mainly invests in Baillie Gifford Positive Change Fund -- Class B accumulation (GBP) as a master fund. Its investment policy is investing in the shares of companies globally whose products or behaviour make a positive impact, including companies addressing critical challenges in areas such as education, social inclusion, healthcare and the environment.
PWIN is a mutual fund that invests in foreign investment units, and/or foreign exchange traded funds (ETFs) that mainly invest in equities related to technology and innovation business groups. The fund has diversified its investments under five themes, namely mega trends, e-sports video games, cybersecurity internet, industrial innovations and biotechnology.
TMBWDEQ focuses on investing in units of foreign mutual funds with a goal of generating returns that are as close as possible to the return on investment in the MSCI World Index. The fund is listed on the EN Paris (Euronext) stock exchange.
K-HIT-A (A) focuses on investment units of the Allianz Global Investors Fund -- Allianz Thematica Share Class P (EUR), a master fund that has a policy to invest in global stocks with a diversified investment portfolio.
For this year to date, K-HIT-A (A) was the highest yielding foreign fund as of Feb 21, thanks to its investment focus on mega trends, digital healthcare and technology.
According to Morningstar, at the end of 2022, Chinese stocks were in the spotlight as investors viewed Beijing's relaxation of China's domestic Covid-19 measures as a positive factor. The news attracted investment into Chinese equity mutual funds of almost 6 billion baht in the fourth quarter of last year.
Meanwhile, the Vietnamese stock market faced several negative factors last year. Therefore, funds based there posted the most negative returns of 32.9% for the year.