The 20 funds which thrived in lacklustre first half

Equity markets around the world have struggled to make headway this year, with many major indices giving up gains made early on to leave them standing flat or down for 2012.

With the risk-on/risk off trade dominating markets, early gains across indices including the FTSE 100, FTSE All-Share, the French Cac 40, and the Hong Kong Hang Seng, have all but vanished following the sell-off in May. As well as a near-flat return from most equity markets, commodities have sold off sharply, with gold and oil both falling. However, a number of fund managers have managed to negotiate the sell-off to post double-digit gains over the first half of the year. Below are the 20 top-performing funds of 2012 so far.  Fund name Return (%)  Pictet Biotech   24.31  A...