Growth Funds Taking Back the Reins

Once value was king. Now growth funds seem to be ruling the land.

In the past five years heading into August, the typical growth fund had gained an average annual 0.71%, versus. a 9.66% gain for value funds, according to Lipper in an Investor's Business Daily article.

Despite that, according to the Lipper data, there were more than 100 large-cap growth funds that lost much less than their average peers during the period. And many wound up in the black.

For example, Chase Growth Fund delivered an average annual 2.59% in the past five years. In 2002, the fund's 13.5% fall was almost half as much as its peers, and the fund was up 6.26% for the year going into Wednesday.

Since late 2002, the fund's buy signals have been leading the managers into gas and oil stocks. The fund owns Haliburton, XTO Energy and Burlington Resources. Such stocks are among the energy market's leaders.

The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.