The technology sector's earnings results have not been very encouraging this time. For the week ending Jul 17th, a good deal of tech results drove markets as earnings results and management commentary were mostly positive. However, the following week many earnings reports dampened investor sentiment. Apple did beat expectations although the surprise wasn't as dramatic as it has been in the past. Nonetheless, excluding Apple, the tech sector's earnings performance was weaker.

In regard to mutual funds, Morningstar data showed that technology sector mutual funds gained 1.64%. Though this return looks dismal, its compares favorably with the fact that it was one of the 6 among 15 Sector Equity Funds to have finished in the green. While it was the 5th best gainer among the Sector Equity Funds category, the technology sector ranked 14thamong all categories of funds.

Markets had a dismal run in the second quarter; wherein the S&P 500 (SPY) and Dow (DOW) declined 0.2% and 0.9%, however the Nasdaq (QQQ) did gain 1.8%. In the first half of 2015, fund inflow slumped 36% year on year to $143 billion. This significant decline was largely due to the dismal trend in the second quarter; wherein inflows were down to $41 billion through Jun 17, comparing unfavorably with the $102 billion of inflows in the first quarter.

Tech Q2 versus Q1 Performance

Coming back to the tech sector, 126 funds out of the 201 funds under the study finished in positive territory. The average gain for these 126 funds was 2.4%. While one fund had break even return, the remaining 74 funds posted an average loss of 1.2%.

As for individual technology mutual funds, the best gain was 9%, which came from ProFunds Mobile Telecom UltrSec Inv (WCPIX – MF report). WCPIX requires a minimum initial investment of $15000. Jacob Internet Fund Inv (JAMFX – MF report) was the next best gainer. JAMFX gained almost 6% and it has a minimum initial investment of $2500.