5 funds to watch for 2026 – how have the funds performed so far?

Schroder Managed Balanced

Schroder Managed Balanced is designed to offer a balanced way to invest across different assets. It’s a fund of funds, which means the managers mainly invest in other funds run by specialist Schroders managers, though they can invest outside Schroders where needed.

Collectively, those funds invest in hundreds of companies and bonds globally, giving investors exposure to a broad mix of shares, bonds and other assets. The managers tend to favour shares when the economic environment looks positive, but they can shift towards more defensive areas like bonds and cash when they think markets look more uncertain.

So far this year, the fund has grown 9.50%* to the end of June 2026, compared with 7.81% for the average fund in the IA Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares sector.

The fund’s investments in shares have benefited from rising global stock markets over the period. The managers have also made some useful tweaks to positioning along the way. For example, increasing the amount invested in UK and Japanese shares in March contributed positively to performance.

This is the type of fund that can play a useful role for investors who want exposure to a range of assets in one place, rather than trying to decide how much to invest in shares, bonds and other investments themselves.

Please note the fund can invest in high yield bonds, emerging markets and derivatives, all of which add risk if used.

JPMorgan Emerging Markets

Emerging markets have had a strong start to the year, helped by a combination of improving investor sentiment, supportive company earnings in some areas, and ongoing enthusiasm for businesses linked to technology and AI-related growth.

JPMorgan Emerging Markets has had an especially strong period. It grew 34.09% over the first six months of the year, compared with 24.55% for the average fund in the IA Global Emerging Markets sector.

One reason for this is style. Growth investing has generally performed better than value investing across emerging markets over the period, and this helped the fund.

More importantly though, some of the fund’s largest investments have performed exceptionally well.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics have all benefited from continued investor enthusiasm for AI and the semiconductor supply chain. These companies are important suppliers to the global technology industry and have seen strong demand linked to data centres, advanced chips and AI infrastructure.

While countries like Taiwan and South Korea have been heavily influenced by technology trends, other emerging markets are also driven by different factors like domestic consumption, commodities or financials.

For investors prepared to take a long-term view, we still think emerging markets can offer useful diversification and attractive growth potential as part of a broader portfolio. Emerging markets remain a higher-risk area though and performance will also go through difficult periods.

T. Rowe Price Global Value Equity

Global equity funds can form the backbone of many long-term portfolios, as they invest across companies from around the world.

T. Rowe Price Global Value Equity does that with a value focus. This means the managers look for companies they believe are undervalued compared with their long-term prospects. That can include more traditional deep-value companies, but also higher-quality businesses the managers think are temporarily out of favour.

The fund has performed strongly over the first half of the year, growing 19.77%. That compares with 9.22% for the average fund in the IA Global sector.

Value investing has generally performed better than growth investing across global markets over this period. This has provided a helpful backdrop for the fund.

That said, all funds invest across a range of sectors, and this fund’s investments in the technology sector have helped performance, including the likes of Intel, Micron, and SanDisk.

We think a global value fund can offer useful diversification for investors whose portfolios have become heavily tilted towards growth or a small number of large US businesses. That doesn’t mean value will always outperform, but it can behave differently from growth-focused funds, which can be helpful over the long term.

The fund can invest in emerging markets and smaller companies, which adds risk.

Invesco Tactical Bond

Bonds have continued to play an important role for investors in 2026, but they haven’t been without volatility.

Invesco Tactical Bond is designed to be flexible. The managers can invest across different types of bonds, including government bonds, corporate bonds, as well as higher risk high yield bonds and emerging market bonds. They can also use derivatives, which adds risk if used.

This flexibility means the fund’s performance depends on the managers’ ability to interpret the economic backdrop and adjust the portfolio as conditions change.

Over the first six months of the year, the fund grew 1.87%, compared with 1.68% for the average fund in the IA Sterling Strategic Bond sector.

The fund provided some shelter from market volatility earlier in the year and when the US-Iran conflict increased concerns about future inflation and the outlook for interest rates. The managers’ investment in UK index-linked gilts proved particularly beneficial.

Index-linked gilts can perform differently from conventional government bonds because their returns are linked to inflation. They can therefore be useful when investors become more concerned about inflation being higher or more persistent than expected.

More recently, investments in government bonds from the UK, Spain and Australia helped performance.

We continue to think this is a good option for investors who want exposure to the wider bond market but do not want to decide which areas of the bond market look most attractive. It could also provide an element of shelter when broader markets go through a difficult period and diversification alongside global equities.

Liontrust UK Growth

The Liontrust UK Growth fund invests in UK companies the managers believe have an “economic advantage” – a sustainable edge over competitors that should allow them to earn above-average profits over the long term.

This focus gives the fund a quality growth bias. The managers tend to favour businesses with strong brands, intellectual property, distribution networks or recurring revenues. These companies can be attractive over the long run, but their style won’t always be in favour.

That’s been the case so far this year. In the UK market, there has been a meaningful difference between value and growth investing. The UK value index has risen 11.04% over the first six months of the year, while the UK growth index has risen 2.60%.

That has been a headwind for the fund. The average fund in the IA UK All Companies sector grew 5.00% over the period, while Liontrust UK Growth grew 4.36%.

While the fund’s lagged the wider UK sector, it’s performed better than the UK growth index. That’s important as we don’t expect a quality growth fund to keep pace with a market led by value and more economically sensitive areas, but we want it to do well compared with its own style.

We continue to believe the fund offers a good option for investors who want exposure to high-quality UK companies with long-term growth potential.

The fund can invest in smaller companies and derivatives, which adds risk if used. Its focused investment style also means performance can look quite different from the broader UK stock market.