Roger Aitken, analyst, interprets the data

The £31m DNB ECO AR retail A (EUR) fund topped ranked amongst UK Registered funds over the past year to 31 July 2014 with a cumulative return of +16.88% versus +8.44%/`153rd over the past three years. SWIP Property Trust A Acc, a £3,055m fund, took the runners up spot with +15.46% over the last one-year horizon. However, the fund’s similar +15.46% showing over the last three years ranked it 124th and a +38.75% performance over the past five placed it 110th.

The £383.59m AXA Framlington Health R Inc. fund came in fourth over the past year but ranked top over the past three and five-year time periods with +64.33% and +127.42%, respectively. Royal London UK Ethical Equity Inst. M Inc. fund, which ranked fifth over the past year (+13.83%) and was fourth in the year to 30 June, placed eighth over the past three years (+43.40%). Bottom ranked fund out of 207 funds here was the £111.09m Iveagh Wealth EUR X Acc fund on a past one-year view with a pretty lacklustre -15.23%.

While MetLife BM/SWIP Property Trust Grs Pen fund top ranked in the UK Individual pensions sector for the past one year (+17.17%), its +19.98% performance over the past three placed it at a lowly 91st.

Skandia/SWIP Property Pension fund came second over the last year (+15.64%), while Zurich/Allianz Global EcoTrends ZPInetPen fund bottom ranked over the same period (-0.85%). The €5.93m MAP Clean Technology Fund I again outshone rivals in the European funds sector with a trail blazing +125.56% over the past year, followed by consistent performer Economie Durable A, a €2.05m fund, which posted past one- and three-year performances of +66.47% (2nd) and +71.47% (6th rank), respectively. 

MC02 New Energy FEIF fund bottom ranked out of 1,094 funds in this sector with a woeful -40.18% and performed even less well over the past three and five-year time frames with -73.11% and -77.86%, respectively. In the US Mutual funds sector the $196.39m New Alternatives fund top ranked over the past 12 months with a relatively modest +27.16% (versus +35.09%/87th and +43.15%/136th), from Firsthand Alternative Energy over the same period. Despite this the latter ranked 166th (+5.7%) and 162nd (+3.52%) over the past three and five years, respectively. So, the picture was mixed. Ariel Discovery Investor bottom ranked out of 193 funds for the past year (-4.58%) - the only fund here in negative territory for this period.