Following their strong showing in the first quarter of 2014, mutual funds in Canada that hold high stakes in natural resources stocks, including sector-specific and diversified Canadian equity funds, were the best performers in April.

But while domestic equity funds did well, most foreign equity categories were in negative territory last month; fixed income and balanced funds generally produced modest gains. Thirteen of the 21 Morningstar Canada fund indices that measure the aggregate returns of equity funds were up during the month, though only four of them increased by 2% or more, according to preliminary performance numbers released Friday by Morningstar Canada.

The best-performing fund index for April was the one that tracks the energy equity category, which increased by 7.5%. The more diversified natural resources equity fund index was the second-best performer with a 5.2% increase.

Funds in the Canadian equity and Canadian small/mid cap equity categories, both of which have large allocations to natural resources, also benefited from this theme in April; their fund indices increased by 2.2% and 2%, respectively. The other sector-diversified domestic equity fund indices also posted strong results, with increases of 1.8%, 1.5%, and 0.9% for Canadian dividend & income equity, Canadian focused equity, and Canadian focused small/mid cap equity, respectively.

Among foreign equity funds, the only categories with positive results in April were emerging markets equity, European equity, and enternational equity, all of which increased by 0.4%. The Asian equity fund categories were all negative for the month, pulled down by a combination of market losses and depreciating currencies versus the Canadian dollar. The worst performer overall was the Greater China equity fund index, which decreased by 4.5% as poor economic data presented questions about the level of the slowdown of the world’s second-largest economy.

Also near the bottom of the performance table last month were the U.S. equity and U.S. small/mid cap equity fund indices, with decreases of 1.2% and 2.1%, respectively. The S&P 500 Index, when measured in U.S. dollars, increased by 0.7% during the month, but the loonie’s 0.9% appreciation versus the U.S. dollar more than offset that gain.

Morningstar Canada’s preliminary fund performance figures are based on change in funds’ net asset values per share during the month, and do not necessarily include end-of-month income distributions. Final performance figures will be published next week.