Despite challenging conditions, the LOM Fixed Income Fund outperformed its stated benchmark in 2016, and kept its five — star rating from Morningstar.

The Hamilton-based company noted a sharp fixed income market sell-off accompanied by a Fed rate hike during the last quarter of 2016.

LOM said its fund outperformed other competitor funds with similar mandates.

“For 2016 as a whole the Fixed Income Fund delivered a 2.91 per cent net total return for investors which exceeded the return on its stated benchmark by a net 1.31 per cent,” said Bryan Dooley, senior portfolio manager and general manager of LOM Asset Management.

“Interest rates rose sharply during the weeks immediately after the American election in early November as investors began to anticipate a US reflation scenario initiated by the incoming Republican Party administration.

“While the jury is still out as to whether Washington’s new leaders will be able to resurrect economic growth and create an inflationary tailwind, markets are already anticipating a shift towards a new economic paradigm which could look quite different from what has occurred over the past decade.”

He added: “Going forward, we expect bond investing to be much more challenging than during the past several years of highly accommodative central bank policy. Active investment management will be the key to successfully navigating these markets.”

Scott Lines, chief executive officer of LOM Group, said “We are happy to have one of our flagship funds show strong performance during a volatile period in the markets. Receiving the highest rating by independent rating agency Morningstar, demonstrates our commitment to offering best-in-class strategies across a wide spectrum of client risk profiles.”