After enjoying strong above-average returns from the Australian sharemarket over the past two calendar years, the Australian equity market provided negative returns in both March and April 2005 – the first time in over two years we’ve seen consecutive months of negative returns. So which fund managers can be expected to outperform in falling markets?

Looking to answer this question, Navigator Research examined the returns of the Australian sharemarket (as measured by the S&P/ASX 200 Accumulation Index) over the five-year period (60 months) to the end of March 2005. Of the 60 months, the market provided a positive return in 37 months, and a negative retu...