Female fund managers are punching above their weight in the performance tables, new analysis suggests.

While women account for around 9% of retail fund managers in the UK, they managed 18% of the top performing active funds over the last five years, according to rplan.co.uk, an online investment platform.

Nine of the top 50 performing retail funds available to UK investors over the last five years have been lead or managed by women, its researchers found.

Stuart Dyer, Rplan’s CIO, said: “There are plenty of studies that show female fund managers constitute a small minority of retail fund managers in the UK. But our analysis shows that they punch above their weight in the performance stakes.

“We can only speculate as to why this might be the case. It may be that women have to be better to succeed and/or it may be that they naturally have a more prudent approach to managing money. Analysis of our own clients’ behaviour has shown that female investors opt for less risky investments.

“Whatever the reasons, ultimately, investors should be happy to have a proven manager with good track record, regardless of gender.”

The company used analysis of UK retail fund sector from Morningstar over the five years to 12 August 2016.