KUALA LUMPUR: Top-performing unit trust funds in the country were acknowledged at The Edge-Lipper-StarMine Awards 2010, held here yesterday.

Public Mutual Bhd maintained its winning streak as the biggest winner for the seventh consecutive year, sweeping 10 out of the 29 awards, including the most prestigious Best Overall Group award.

AmInvestment Services Bhd retained its award for the Best Bond Fund Group and Pacific Mutual Fund Bhd took home the Best Equity Fund Group and the Best Mixed Assets Fund Group awards.

In addition, the year's top brokers and analysts were honoured in The Edge-StarMine Malaysia Brokers Rankings and The Edge-StarMine Malaysia Analyst Awards.

Kim Eng Research Sdn Bhd was ranked top for earnings estimates in the mid- and small-cap stocks category as well as the FTSE Bursa Malaysia 30 Index category.

Norziana Mohd Inon of CIMB Investment Bank Bhd took home the award for Malaysia's top analyst. Annuar Aziz of Credit Suisse Securities (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd and Ahmad Maghur Usman of OSK Research Sdn Bhd came in second and third respectively.

The event was graced by Tan Sri Zarinah Anwar, chairman of Securities Commission, as guest of honour. Also present were Bursa Malaysia CEO Datuk Yusli Mohd Yusuf, The Edge Malaysia editor-in-chief Ho Kay Tat, Thomson Reuters Malaysia senior company officer Simon Soo Hu and the Federation of Investment Managers Malaysia's Lee Siew Hoong.

The winners of the awards are determined based on the Lipper Leader ratings for consistent return, a risk-adjusted investment performance return measure developed by Lipper.

A total of 25 classification awards covering 13 eligible fund categories and four group awards were given out this year, including Islamic funds that topped their respective Lipper classifications.