Worries over the global economy and the U.S. dollar contributed to a money-losing September for Canadian mutual fund investors.

Only 11 of the 32 Morningstar Canada Fund Indices were in positive territory, marking the end of a five-month winning streak during which 26 or more of the indices had gained in each month.

As was the case a month earlier, the Precious Metals Fund Index was the top performer. However, two-thirds of the 4,800 Canadian funds tracked by Morningstar lost money during September. In recent months, quite the opposite had been the case: 86% made money in August and 90% were in the black in July. Nearly 80% of funds remain in positive territory on a year-to-date basis.

“Fund indices for bonds and precious metals were the primary beneficiaries of the weakness in the U.S. dollar,” said Gareth Tingling, Morningstar Canada’s manager of fund research, in a news release. “Currency effects hurt foreign equity returns and worked in favour of Canadian content. Despite the number of Morningstar fund indices in the red, many of them suffered losses of 1% or less. The few fund indices that lost 3% or more tended to be tilted toward U.S. stocks with rich valuations.”

Precious Metals was September’s top performing Morningstar Fund Index, with a 2.6% return. It is also the top performer year-to-date, up 18.6% since January 1. Foreign Bond had the second best one-month return, up 2.4%, followed by Japanese Equity at 2.2%. The other four Morningstar fixed-income fund indices –Canadian Bond, High Yield Bond, Canadian Short Term Bond and Canadian Mortgage –also were among the top 10 performers. In addition to Japanese Equity, Asia-Pacific Rim Equity, Canadian Small Cap Equity and Real Estate were the only equity-related indices to crack the top 10. The only other index in positive territory during the month was Canadian Money Market.

North American equity funds took a big hit in September, with U.S. Small Cap Equity at the bottom of the heap with a 4.9% loss. Faring not much better were Science and Technology, off 4.6%, and U.S. Equity and North American Equity, both down 3.6%. On a year-to-date basis, the Foreign Bond Fund Index was the worst performer, down 3.3%, followed by U.S. Equity, off 0.6%, and European Equity, down 0.4%. All of the other fund indices were in positive territory during the nine months ended Sept. 30.

Among the largest indices in terms of total assets not mentioned above, Canadian Equity lost 1.3% in September, while Canadian Dividend fell 0.8%. Canadian Balanced slipped 0.4%. Global Equity was down 2.3% while International Equity fared somewhat better, losing 1.3%.

Mackenzie Financial Corp. again had the most funds with a five-star Morningstar Rating, with 10 funds, the same as a month earlier. That 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 25 five-star funds, also good enough for top and one more than last month’s total.

TD Mutual Funds had the second highest total of five-star funds with seven, one less than in August. AIM Trimark Investments, Franklin Templeton Investments Corp. and Investors Group were tied for third spot with six five-star funds, compared with seven each last month for AIM Trimark and Templeton, and unchanged for Investors.

Including clones, the top five companies were Mackenzie with 25 five-star funds, CI with 15, AIM with 13, TD with 10 and Franklin Templeton with nine. These rankings are the same as last month.