MF Wrap: International funds give highest average return in January; infra funds worst hit

International mutual funds have delivered the highest average return of 9.11 percent in the first month of 2019 across all categories, according to the data on Valueresearch, a mutual fund research firm.

The mutual fund schemes that invest in overseas markets are termed as international schemes.

Among schemes that registered the best returns in the international category were HSBC Brazil Fund (20.96 percent), Franklin India Feeder Franklin-US Opportunities Fund (12.28 percent), and Principal Global Opportunities Fund (12.21 percent).

Mutual fund experts attributed the outperformance of international funds to strong US market. Apart from that, they also said that emerging markets were also doing well, particularly Brazil market.

Information Technology funds were second best performers with 6.08 percent average returns. In comparison, Nifty IT Index gave 8.89 percent during the review period. IT sector has been riding on good earnings show by the IT giants in India.

Last month, TCS  reported a 24.1 percent rise in YoY profit at Rs 8,105 crore for the December quarter.

Among sectoral funds, schemes investing in pharmaceutical sector too delivered marginal positive returns.

Infrastructure funds were worst hit with negative 5.04 percent returns, along with large-cap mid-cap and small-cap equity funds delivering negative returns in the range of 1-4 percent in the month of January.

In January, Nifty rallied 179.20 points or 1.68 percent to close at 10,831.