It isn't easy to be an index beater.
Many mutual funds had a tough time beating benchmark indexes in 2009, but the smaller-company Canadian equity managers did a better job than their larger-company peers.
In the Canadian small-mid cap equity category, 52 per cent of actively managed funds beat the S&P/TSX Completion Total Return Index's 48-per-cent gain, according a report released Thursday by index provider Standard & Poor's.
In the Canadian equity group, 30.4 per cent were able to outperform the 35-per-cent gain by the S&P/TSX Composite Total Return Index, indicates the Standard & Poor's Indices Versus Active Funds (SPIVA) Scorecard. Over three-and five years, only 12.5 per cent and 7.5 per cent, respectively, beat the index.
There were also mixed results for actively managed funds invested in foreign markets.
Last year, nearly 52 per cent of international equity funds (which excludes Canada and the United States) outperformed the 13.1-per-cent return by the S&P EPAC (Europe Pacific Asia) LargeMidCap Total Return Index in Canadian dollars. And only 39.7 per cent of U.S. equity funds beat the 9.3-per-cent return achieved by the S&P 500 Total Return Index in Canadian dollars.