10 Investors' Stocks Beating the Market

BOSTON (TheStreet) -- The financial-services sector, and asset managers in particular, has come roaring back this year amid signs of economic growth and an apparent resolution of the sovereign debt crisis in Europe.

The positive outlook from investors has also renewed confidence in asset management firms, which are benefiting from higher trading volume and money inflows to their funds this year, even as they battle to stanch the run-off of the past few years to inexpensive, passively managed index funds or exchange traded funds after several years of funds' underperformance.

As a result, the leading asset management companies' stocks are posting double-digit gains in 2012.

Shares of companies in the asset management company category, as tracked by Morningstar, are up an average of 19% this year, versus the benchmark S&P 500's 12% gain. Two of the biggest fund management firms, Vanguard Group and Fidelity Investments, aren't publicly traded.

On Friday, S&P Capital IQ upgraded the asset management and custody banks sector to "positive" from "neutral" because "so far this year, fund flows have done a turnaround with new investments coming into long-term funds.