Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) may be ready to enter a phase of active portfolio management, following the passive tack adopted to handle the unstable markets of the past few years, John Nugée, the head of the official institutions group at State Street Global Advisers, said on Tuesday.

The scale of crisis losses sparked by active management – in which portfolios are composed of specifically picked items and designed with a view to outperforming a benchmark index – put funds off the approach