Natural Resources Funds Among Top Winners in Second Quarter

One of the top specialty fund categories in the second quarter was natural resources funds, rising 14%. So far this year, they are up 21%, the Associated Press reports. China funds rose 21% and Latin American funds delivered 20% in the quarter.

However, those returns were not an anomaly; most fund categories were strongly in the black in the quarter, according to Lipper. “It was a great quarter,” said Lipper Analyst Jeff Tjornehoj. But in the final third of the quarter, many stocks took a beating, he said. “We got most of our return early on and merely held on by our fingernails,” he said.

The average equity fund rose 6.3% in the quarter, and assets in equity funds rose 8.4% to $4.14 trillion, up from $3.82 trillion in the first quarter.