Commodities, frontier markets top Jan-Mar investment league

Commodities and frontier market stocks were the best-performing investments in the first quarter of 2014, while Shanghai and Tokyo shares as, well as copper, are at the bottom of the league table.

The Reuters-Jefferies CRB commodity index, made up of 19 key commodities, rose nine per cent. The gains came after the index's five per cent drop last year attracted many investors.

Gold has risen 7.3 per cent, following a 28 per cent drop last year. Investors turned to the safe-haven asset when tensions between Russia and the West escalated over Ukraine.

The MSCI frontier equity index rose 7.2 per cent, with buoyant growth in newly developing economies spurring portfolio inflows. It also benefited from investors shifting out of major emerging markets, which have been hit by a stimulus wind-down from the Federal Reserve. Italy's 10-year government bonds rose seven per cent, beating German and US counterparts.

High-yielding peripheral euro zone debt has been rallying thanks to the region's recovering economies, with Italian yields hitting eight and a half year low of 3.261 per cent on Friday.

Concerns over China have weighed on many markets geared specifically towards the world's second biggest economy. Copper was the biggest victim as it bucked other commodities to fall nearly 10 per cent. The metal hit a three and a half year low this month, after a bond default by a Chinese solar panel marker stoked fears about more defaults, unravelling demand for copper as collateral in financial deals.

Tokyo's Nikkei index fell 7.2 per cent on a dollar basis to become the second worst performer in the past three months.