By contrast, large-cap portfolio managers that did not get caught up in the shale oil boom and remained skeptical about crude recovery delivered positive returns for their investors, according to the analysis.
Sonu Kalra, manager of the $20 billion Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund, has kept his portfolio's exposure to energy below 2 percent of assets.
His fund's year-to-date total return of minus 2.85 percent is better than that of 73 percent of its peers. This year he has eliminated positions in oil refiner Hess and oilfield services provider Halliburton Co while hunting for more information technology stocks.
He said what a portfolio manager chooses to avoid can often be as important as what to own.
"It has been that type of year."