Zenith has added nine international equity funds to its recommended list and removed six funds.

The firm has also grown its recommended list with funds that include global core and global growth mandates.

"Based on this focus we are placed to add high calibre managers such as Aberdeen, Bennelong/Security Global Investors, BlackRock, Capital International, Marvin & Palmer and T Rowe Price to our recommended list," Zenith head of research Ben Davis said.

The six funds that were removed from the recommended list included Colonial First State Global Resources Long Short Fund, PM Capital Absolute Performance Fund, Macquarie Global Private Equity Securities Fund, MQ Asia Long Short Fund, Schroder Geared Global Active Value Fund (hedged) and TAAM New Asia Fund.

The Colonial and PM Capital funds were downgraded to an approved rating while the remaining four funds did not participate in the review due to commercial reasons.

The performance of Colonial First State's resources fund has been well under objective since inception, Davis said.

"The uses of the fund are limited for retail investors. The fee structure is also high and we would prefer to see a hurdle rate incorporated into the structure," he said.

Staff departures from PM Capital were the principle reason behind the rating downgrade.

"Coinciding with this team instability has been a period of poor negative performance and significant falls in funds under management. For these reasons we have placed the fund on an approved rating," Davis said.