Fund managers including Bennelong, Intrinsic, Macquarie and Schroders were among the best performers in the Australian shares long only category of Mercer's September 2010 sector survey.
Bennelong Concentrated Equities topped the category, gaining 7.4 per cent for the 12 months to September.
The Intrinsic Style Neutral Portfolio, Macquarie High Conviction and Schroder Australian Equity Opportunities were the next best performers, all returning 5.4 per cent over the 12 months.
Products managed by Parker Asset Management and Concord Capital were among those that were at the bottom of the table in the category.
The Parker Enhanced Leaders Trust slumped 6.4 per cent, while the Concord Australian Equities Composite lost 5.9 per cent in the year to September.
The median manager in the category added 0.4 per cent in the 12 months while the S&P/ASX 300 Index gained 0.7 per cent.
Within the overseas shares "core" category of Mercer's survey, managers including Perennial, Morgan Stanley and Magellan had the top-performing funds.
The Perennial Global Shares High Alpha returned 15.4 per cent, Morgan Stanley Global Franchise gained 7 per cent and Magellan Global added 6.3 per cent in the year to September.
Putnam Global Core ex-Australia and Invesco Structured Global Equity were among the worst performers in the category over the 12 months, losing 7.9 per cent and 5.4 per cent, respectively.
The median managers in the category lost 0.5 per cent in the 12 months while the MSCI World ex-Australia Index declined 2.8 per cent.
The fund managers who did well over the year were generally high conviction managers, Mercer principal David Carruthers said.
