Canadian mutual funds slumped again in May, according to Morningstar Canada.

Overall, the median mutual fund lost 0.7% in May. Nearly two-thirds of all mutual funds available in Canada lost money during the month.

“However, a silver lining could be gleaned from the fact that the loss this time around was not nearly as pronounced as in April, when the median fund shed 1.7% and nearly three-quarters of all funds lost ground,” said Rob Chang, an analyst with Morningstar Canada.

The fund research firm says that the gold and precious metals category was the top performer in the month, with the median precious metals fund gaining nearly 19% during the month, led by a 5.8% increase in the New York spot gold price. The TSX Gold and Silver index gained 13.8% during the month. It was the fifth consecutive month that the Precious Metals category was the industry’s top one-month performer. Leading the Precious Metals category during May were Sprott Gold and Precious Minerals, up 29%; Royal Precious Metals, 27.7%; and Dynamic Canadian Precious Metals, 24.3%.

Other strong categories during May were Japanese Equity and Natural Resources. Japanese funds gained a median 3.7%, beating the benchmark Nikkei225 Average’s 2.4% return during May. Natural Resources funds were up 3.2%, ahead of the TSX Oil & Gas index (which slipped 1%) and the TSX Paper & Forest Products index (off 0.6%), and equaled the TSX Metals & Minerals Index.

Latin America Equity funds were the big loser in May, with the median fund losing 8.3% of its value in May — a steeper loss than April’s -7.1% setback and the category’s worst decline since it lost 13.8% in September.

Science & Technology funds continued to lose ground in May and for the fourth time in the past five months. For the year, the category remains the worst performer so far with a year-to-date loss of 27.1%. Every fund in the category took a step backward in May, with the median fund posting a 7.9% decline, which was in line with the Nasdaq 100 index’s loss of 7.8%.

Mackenzie Financial Corp. continues to have the most Five Star Funds, with a total of 14, unchanged from April. Four other companies had their number of five-star funds increase to close the gap.

AIM Funds Management Inc. and CI Mutual Funds Inc. each added two funds to the five-star club, while TD Mutual Funds added three. AIM, CI and TD now each have 10 five-star funds. Overall, 191 funds qualified for a five-star rating as of May 31. Seventeen of those moved up from a four-star rating the previous month.