Approximately 90% of pooled funds had negative returns in the third quarter of 2008, with the most severe losses among natural resources funds, according to Morningstar Canada.

The five pooled funds that make up the natural resources equity category lost between 29.6% and 36.9% for the quarter, while the one fund in the precious metals equity category lost 32.8%.

The third worst-performing category was emerging markets equity, where the six constituent funds had a median loss of 24.9%, followed by the Canadian small/mid cap equity and Canadian focused small/mid cap equity categories, where the median losses were 23% and 21%, respectively.

All 23 equity-based pooled fund categories had negative median returns for the quarter, including 18 groups whose losses were in the double digits.

The Canadian equity category, which contains 135 pooled funds, posted a median loss of 17.8%, while the median return among the Canadian focused equity category’s 33 funds was a 14.2% loss.

Funds that target foreign equities also had a tough time during the quarter. Notably, the European equity, international equity, and global equity categories had median losses of 19.4%, 16.6%, and 10.1%, respectively.

The U.S. equity category had the best median return among diversified equity categories with a 5% loss.

Overall, only three of the 41 pooled fund categories had positive median returns in the third quarter of 2008. The best-performing group was Canadian short term fixed income with a median return of 1%, while Canadian money market and global fixed Income gained 0.8% and 0.3%, respectively.

Though the other fixed-income categories were in negative territory, their losses were tame compared to their equity counterparts: Canadian fixed income funds had a median loss of 0.5%, while high yield fixed income and Canadian long term fixed income were down 1.9% and 3.1%, respectively. The worst-performing fixed-income category was Canadian inflation protected fixed income, with a median loss of 9%.