Mutual funds continued their uptrend in November, although the gains decelerated from those experienced in October. According to Morningstar Canada, 75% of mutual funds were in the black for the month, down from 88% in October.

Morningstar Canada says approximately 78% funds have made gains for the year so far, according to Morningstar Canada data representing approximately 4,800 funds.

For November, only seven of 35 Morningstar Canada Fund Indices lost money, which continues to reflect the broad-based gains that mutual funds have enjoyed since April of this year. That compared with six losing indices out of 35 in October.

Once again, the top return was posted by the Precious Metals Fund Index, which gained 11% on the month. It was the fourth straight month that this group.

“Investors who have treated Precious Metals funds as a small but important part of a well-diversified portfolio have been well rewarded, and those who have focused on them have reaped even bigger rewards,” said David O’Leary, an analyst with Morningstar Canada, in a news release. But he added that investors would we ” wise to recall the rush to technology funds during 1999 and the huge losses those funds have since suffered.”

The Precious Metals index remained the top year-to-date performer, up 51.9% at November 30.

November’s worst performing fund index was Japanese Equity, which has a one-month loss of 4.7%, followed by Asia Ex-Japan and Asia/Pacific Rim, which both were down 3.3%.

Among the largest indices in terms of total assets, Canadian Equity returned 0.9% in November, following a 4.7% gain in October. Canadian Dividend also gained 0.9% during November, while Canadian Balanced gained 0.6%. Global Equity was almost flat, up 0.2%, while International Equity inched up 0.5%.

Mackenzie Financial Corp. continued to top the list of Canadian mutual fund companies with the most funds rated five stars by Morningstar in November. Mackenzie had 11 funds with the top ranking at Nov. 30, 2003, one more than in October. The total excludes clone funds, those that duplicate the performance of another fund but have a tax-advantaged structure or come packaged with some additional features. Including clones, Mackenzie had 26 five-star funds, also good enough for top spot in the five-star stakes, and two more than at the end of October.

Acuity Funds Ltd. remained in second place in the five-star-fund rankings with nine five star funds, the same as the previous month, followed by AIM Trimark Investments with eight (same), while four firms were tied for fourth with six five star funds: CI Mutual Funds Inc., Franklin Templeton Investments Corp., Investors Group and TD Mutual Funds.

Including clones, the top five companies were Mackenzie, with 26 five-star funds, followed by CI (17), AIM Trimark (16), TD (12), and Acuity and Franklin Templeton (nine each).