The best performing funds of 2007 invested in emerging markets, according to Dr Richard Ramyar, head of research at Lipper, a provider of information on mutual fund performance.

In spite of market volatility during the final months of 2007, global emerging markets and the Asia Pacific areas led sector performance, with returns of 34.8% and 36.3% respectively, Ramyar said. And 70% of the top 100 fund performers in 2007 were emerging market related, either by direct investment or driven by emerging market pressures.

The Gartmore China Opportunities fund, which achieved a 71.2% return, was the top individual fund performer of 2008, closely followed by the Old Mutual Asian Select fund (69.3%) and the Jupiter China fund (66.6%). The only fund in the top 10 not to invest directly in emerging markets was the First State Global Resources fund. However, it invests in commodities, as asset class which is strongly linked to the emerging markets due to the growing appetite for oil, base metals, meats and grains in such areas.

According to Dr Ramyar, European fund investments fared relatively well, holding third and fourth place in 2007’s sector performance ranking, with the Europe (ex UK) sector returning an average 12.6% and the Europe (inc UK) sector returning 11.3%.