Actively managed funds in the US have had a good start to 2003, with more than half the domestic equity mutual funds in some sectors beating their benchmarks, according to Standard & Poor's, the global ratings agency.

The S&P indices versus active funds scorecard found that 49.3% of US large-cap mutual funds beat the S&P 500 in the first quarter 2003. More than 70% of small and mid-cap active funds beat their benchmarks - the S&P SmallCap600 and the S&P MidCap 400.