MUTUAL FUND PERFORMANCE IN A BULLISH MARKET DURING THE COVID-19 CRISIS

Yunqi Chen; Jia Sin Lim

doi:10.32890/ijbf2024.19.1.4

Authors

Yunqi Chen Faculty of Economics and Business, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Jia Sin Lim Corporate Recovery and Restructuring Baker Tilly International, Malaysia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32890/ijbf2024.19.1.4

Keywords:

Passive fund vs active fund, bullish market, ESG investing, Growth Investing, Morningstar and Lipper rating

Abstract

Active funds vs passive funds represent one of the most prominent investment decisions that ought to be undertaken by investors over the decades. Our paper seeks to offer an insight into the average performance of equity mutual funds during the period when there were roughly 70 ‘all-time-highs’ recorded by S&P 500 amid the COVID-19 health crisis. Additionally, our paper aims to explore the robustness and persistence of the explanatory powers of Morningstar sustainability globes, ratings from agencies and growth tilt during the health crisis. Our results indicated that the benchmark indexes seemed to dominate mutual funds in most cases during our sampling period. The ratings from Morningstar and/or Lipper together with growth investing appeared to be ideal elements to contemplate when making investment decisions during the COVID-19 health crisis.