These funds were the best performing in the first half — and here are their favorite stocks

Published Wed, Jul 5 20238:08 PM EDT

U.S. and many global markets soared in the first half of the year, with many growth-oriented stocks outperforming. The S & P 500 soared by 15.9% in the first six months of the year — its best first half since 2019. The MSCI World Index , meanwhile, was up over 12%. "2023 1H was a mirror image of 2022, with poorly performing asset classes doing well and vice versa. For example, growth equities outperformed while commodity equities underperformed," Bryan Cheung, associate director of manager research at Morningstar, told CNBC Pro. Unsurprisingly, the sector that performed the best was information technology which rallied 30.67% in the first half, according to data compiled by Swiss private bank Julius Baer. That was followed by the communications sector (25.9%) and consumer cyclicals (16.15%). "The US-led equity rebound in 1H 2023 was unusually concentrated in the so-called 'magnificent seven' mega-cap tech stocks. Other artificial intelligence-themed stocks broadly benefited from the excitement around its long-term potential as well, such as semiconductor stocks," said Cheung. He added that was reflected in the top performing Morningstar categories, which were U.S. large-cap growth equity, technology sector equity, and Taiwan equity — based on category average returns. Here are the top performing, actively managed equity funds in the first half of the year, according to data from Morningstar. Here are some stocks that appeared most often in the top 10 holdings of the funds, with potential upside to price targets and buy ratings, according to FactSet. The stock with the largest potential upside is the U.S.-listed shares of Chinese tech giant Alibaba , at nearly 62%, with an analyst buy rating of 87%. Argentine e-commerce giant MercadoLibre garnered the next highest potential upside at 33%. Looking ahead Cheung advised investors to look beyond short-term performance and cautioned against chasing after strong recent performance. He said studies have shown funds with the highest short-term returns tend to disappoint. "Instead of betting whether it's a new bull market or a bear market rally, which are hardly predictable, investors should focus on how to position their portfolios based on current valuations," he said. Investors should re-balance their portfolios from equities that have gotten more expensive — like tech, and into more attractive-valued areas such as value-oriented stocks, and Asia as well as emerging markets. "Outside of equities, fixed income assets offer improved yields and diversification potential today and are in better footing than two years ago to hedge against downside risks in investor portfolios," Cheung said.