UPDATE 2-Top performing funds show China, Latam gains-Lipper

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By Joan Gralla

NEW YORK, June 30 (Reuters) - Mutual funds that invest in China's and Latin America's stock markets dominated the list of the top 10 performers in the year to date through June 26, fund data firm Thomson Reuters Lipper said on Tuesday.

The star was a small fund, the Oceanstone Fund, whose Multi-Cap Core Fund had a total return of more than 120 percent, followed by the Dreyfus Emerging Asia A fund (DEAAX.O), a Pacific Ex-Japan fund with a nearly 88 percent return, and the ProFunds Mobile Telecom UltraSector ProFund (WCPIX.O), which gained more than 76 percent.

Nine of the 10 worst performers were all dedicated short bias funds, whose bearish stock bets boomeranged. Jeff Tjornehoj, Lipper Research Manager, United States and Canada, noted some of these funds' reliance on leverage cost them dearly.

The bottom three of these funds were the Rydex Inv 2XS&P SS Finl fund, which lost nearly 70 percent, the Direxion: EmgMk Bear 3X fund, which gave up more than 79 percent and the Direxion: Finl Bear 3X, which shed almost 87 percent. The fourth-worst performer, which lost nearly 64 percent, invested in financial services: the Direxion: Finl Bull 3X.

The latest data showed a reversal of fortune from the first quarter, when major stock indexes were trading well below where they began 2009. In the first three months of this year, eight of the winners in equities were these short bias funds, which bet against, for example, the Europe, Africa, Far East stock index.For more details, please click on: [ID:nN31433683].

But world markets have rallied; for instance the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX has gained about 36 percent from a 12-year closing low on March 9, as investors have bet the economy and markets have seen the worst of the credit crisis.

Bond funds shouldn't be counted out. Tjornehoj said funds such as Nuveen's California High-Yield Municipal Debt fund NCHAX returned about 10.50 percent in each of the first two quarters of 2009.

"A 10 perecent return in each quarter -- people like that," he said, estimating that investors in the 35 percent tax bracket would enjoy a 15.4 percent return.

Furthermore, sleepy money market funds performed well, partly owing to their rather low fees -- say 15 basis points or so versus 60 basis points for more actively managed funds, he added.

The latest preliminary fund rankings were unlikely to change substantially because June 30 marked the end of the second quarter. (Reporting by Joan Gralla and Jennifer Ablan; Editing by Jan Paschal)