By David Randall

NEW YORK (Reuters), The U.S.’s top performing actively managed equity funds in 2021 were primarily focused upon small-caps, data from Morningstar shows.

According to Morningstar data, the Bridgeway Small Cap Value fund posted an impressive 61.5% return. Eight of the 10 top funds had small-caps strategies.

Due to the bet placed on cyclical stocks, some small-cap funds performed better than others as the U.S. economy recovered from the coronavirus outbreak.

According to Morningstar data Ken Farsalas, Oberweis Micro-Cap fund returned 41.3% in 2012, ranking no. 6. Farsalas claimed, “There are consumers companies that trade like the economy is in recession.”

This strong performance was due to concerns over sustained high inflation, supply chain bottlenecks and other factors that weighed on shares in smaller companies. A benchmark for small businesses posted 12.5% growth in the past year, which is half of the 25% gain recorded by large-caps as of December 21.

Farsalas explained that the Federal Reserve pulled back emergency-level support to the economy in the late stages of the pandemic. This weighed on small-cap stocks, which were speculative and high-growth, during 2020’s early phases.

Boot Barn (NYSE.) Holdings Inc is one of the fund’s top winners. This retailer has seen a nearly 152% increase in sales since January.

Bridgeway could not be reached immediately for comments on its strategy.

The MicroSectors US Big Oil Leveraged Equity ETN gained 151.1%. This was followed by the Direxion fund, which returned 139.4% and made a three-times leveraged wager on suppliers and homebuilders.

AlphaCentric Income Opportunities was the best-performing fixed income fund, with 14.5% returns due to its non-agency focus on residential mortgage-backed securities. The RiverPark Strategic Income Institutional Fund, with 11.5% return, followed closely. This fund focuses on corporate bonds and high-yield corporate bond portfolios.