Most Australian actively managed equity funds beat the market in the financial year that ended on June 30, in a rare stretch of outperformance that runs counter to long-term trends.

In total, 55.7 per cent of Australian active equity funds outpaced the S&P/ASX 200 benchmark, according to the SPIVA scorecard data from S&P Dow Jones Indices that tracks the performance of actively managed funds around the world.