CAMRADATA, a leading provider of data and analysis for institutional investors, has published its investment research reports for Q1 2018, which chart the performance of investments and asset managers across six asset classes – Global Equity, Diversified Growth Funds, Multi Sector Fixed Income, Emerging Markets Equity, UK Equity and Emerging Markets Debt.

The newly designed format for 2018 includes an overview of activity in each asset class, a 2018 investment outlook and an easy to read highlights section at the start, followed by more detailed analysis of each universe, assets under management, market share, performance and distribution in each asset class.

In each report over three years’ worth of data from CAMRADATA Live (its online manager research platform) at 31 March 2018 was analysed to produce the six reports and key investments trends emerged for Q1.

The first quarter of 2018 brought “regime change” to global asset markets, with positive returns hard to come by and volatility rising. This was largely expected after the very strong gains for global asset markets and abnormally low levels of volatility experienced in late 2016 and throughout 2017.

Sean Thompson, Managing Director, CAMRADATA said, “The key factors behind the recent market oscillations have been concerns over global trade, rising market interest rates and a return of inflation. Global trade has been growing impressively, but with the opening salvo of a mutually impairing trade war, between the US and China, having been fired, obstacles to free trade have been raised.

“All around the world equity markets have posted negative returns in the first few months of this year. Volatility in equity markets and losses in government bond markets have also triggered a significant fall in the price of many assets around the world, including property, commodities and even investments like gold which should have benefited from increasing political uncertainty in the first three months of this year, have actually lost money,” adds Mr Thompson.

Below are Q1 highlights in each asset class

Global Equities

• Over the last quarter the Global Equity universe saw positive inflows which totalled $7.23bn.

• The first quarter of 2018 saw a downturn of positive performance with only 40% of products achieving a breakeven or positive return, compared to 100% in Q4 2017.

• RAM Active achieved the largest percentage growth in AuM seeing its assets increase by 395.51%, followed by Cornerstone, Brandes, T Rowe Price and Perkins Investment Management.

Emerging Markets Equity

• Over the last quarter the EME universe saw positive inflows which totalled just over $4.8bn.

• In Q1 2018 just over 82% of managers achieved positive returns in the Emerging Market Equity universe. The lowest return produced is -3.24% and the best performing product achieved 8.08%.

• NS Partners achieved the largest percentage growth in AuM seeing its assets increase by 158.44%, followed by DePrince, Race & Zollo Inc., AXA, Mirae and Lombard Odier.

Diversified Growth Funds

• Over the last quarter the DGF universe has seen £3.23bn in net outflows, following the trend from Q4 2017, which witnessed the first outflow in three years.

• Since Q4 2017 DGF assets have decreased by £6.2BN following the trend from Q4 2017 which saw the first drop in assets in 36 months.

• William Blair achieved the largest percentage growth in AuM seeing its assets increase by 149.68% in Q1 2018, followed by Threadneedle, Dimensional, Amundi and Fidelity.

Multi Sector Fixed Income

• Over the last quarter the MSFI Absolute Return products achieved positive inflows of just over £3bn. This continues the positive trend for inflows with this asset class receiving positive inflows for the last eight quarters.

• Since Q4 2017 MSFI absolute return assets have increased by just under £2.9BN

• T Rowe Price continued to hold the hold the largest asset inflows totalling £2,458m, in converted sterling, during Q1 2018. They were followed by Western Asset Management, BlackRock, J.P. Morgan and Newton. Since Q4 2017 MSFI absolute return assets have increased by just under £2.9BN.

Emerging Market Debt

• Over the last quarter the EMD universe continued to see new inflows of just over $3bn, continuing the trend of positive inflows over the past five quarters.

• The first quarter of 2018 saw a downturn of positive performance with only 44% of products achieving a breakeven or positive return, compared to 97% in Q4 2017.

• BlackRock had the largest asset inflows totalling $2,846m during the quarter. They were followed by Ashmore Group, Global Evolution, Van Eck Associates and Franklin Templeton Investments.

UK Equity

• UK equities continued to see outflows this quarter with £3bn having been withdrawn. In fact, this asset class has seen outflows of assets in each of the past 12 quarters.

• In Q1 2018 the UK Equity universe saw 100% of managers produce a negative performance. The lowest quarterly return produced is -10.77 % and the best performing product achieved -0.8%.

• UBS Asset Management took the top spot in the asset manager inflows table with £1,897m inflows in Q1 2018, followed by Old Mutual Global Investors (UK) Limited, Vanguard Asset Management, Jupiter Asset Management Limited and RWC.

Sean Thompson concluded, “Our new look quarterly investment reports are easier to read and provide more detailed commentary and analysis of each of the six asset classes to help investors stay up to date with what’s happening across the markets.

“We are committed to fostering and nurturing strong, productive relationships across the institutional investment sector and are continually innovating new solutions to meet the industry’s complex needs.

“Our CAMRADATA Live tool helps investors keep abreast of the issues that are likely to affect the markets, enabling them to make informed investment decisions. Our quarterly reports are essential reading to find out how each asset class has recently performed as well as historically over the past three years,” adds Mr Thompson.